If you’re a regular reader of 20×49.com, you may know that this blog is a publication of the Shreveport-Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau. Every day, we work with local attractions, restaurants, hotels, casinos, arts organizations, festival organizers, and other partners to promote and support the local tourism and hospitality industry, which employs approximately 10,000 hard-working men and women in Caddo and Bossier Parishes.

This week, May 3-9, is National Travel and Tourism Week across the U.S. During a typical National Travel and Tourism Week, we’d organize media events, a public rally, and the annual Excellence in Hospitality Awards to show our local hospitality industry just how much we appreciate their hard work. This year, due to COVID-19, we can’t come together in-person to express our gratitude to these folks. So, we’re taking the celebration online.

First and foremost, please consider supporting the new Shreveport-Bossier Hospitality Fund, a relief fund for hospitality workers who’ve suffered financial strain or loss of employment due to COVID-19. You can donate to the fund, which is administered by United Way of Northwest Louisiana, here. There’s a full blog post about the fund, with lots more info, here.

Another way to express your support for Shreveport-Bossier’s tourism and hospitality industry is by using our new Facebook frame, which shows a skyline of Shreveport-Bossier with the words “I’m Planning My #SBComeback.”

A preview of our #SBComeback Facebook frame.

What is the #SBComeback, exactly? It’s more than a Facebook frame, it’s a frame of mind. It’s an eagerness to get back out—as soon as we can safely do so—and enjoy our incredible local community and the places, people and traditions that make it special. To quote Stacy Brown, president of the Shreveport-Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau:

“Although we can’t meet in person, we can stay connected, unified and supportive of one another from afar while rallying around the spirit of travel.”

You can add the frame to your Facebook profile simply by clicking this link, or by using the following instructions:

-In the Facebook app, go to your own profile
-Click the little “camera” icon that you’d normally click to change your profile pic
-Select “Add frame”
-Search for “Support Shreveport-Bossier’s #SBComeback” (the frame will likely pop up once you’ve entered “Support Shreveport”)
-Add the frame!

Right now, our local hospitality industry—the line cooks, front desk clerks, valets, and others who are often the first to greet visitors to Shreveport-Bossier—are facing enormous challenges. The #SBComeback hashtag and Facebook frame are about showing them that we can’t wait to resume patronizing their businesses.

For more information on Shreveport-Bossier’s National Travel and Tourism Week celebration and the #SBComeback, visit our website.

20×49.com is a publication of the Shreveport-Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau.