It’s Acadiana: Out To Lunch

Hosted ByChristiaan Mader

OUT TO LUNCH finds journalist Christiaan Mader conducting business Acadiana style: over lunch. Each week Christiaan invites guests from Acadiana's business community to join him. Beyond the foundations of the Acadiana economy - oil, cuisine, music - there is a vast network of entrepreneurs, small businesses, and even some of the country's largest companies who call Acadiana home. Out to Lunch is the cafeteria of the wider Acadiana business community. You can also hear the show on KRVS 88.7FM.

Tourists and Locals – Out to Lunch – It’s Acadiana

January 31, 2018 Out To Lunch Comments Off on Tourists and Locals – Out to Lunch – It’s Acadiana

For as long as human beings have been on earth, we’ve been on the move. If you’re a Creationist, Adam and Eve were the first travelers when God told them to pack up their fig leaves and get out of The Garden of Eden.

If you’re an Evolutionist, geological finds support the theory that early humans wandered far and wide across the continents in search of food.

Today, millions of us are on the move. Either for absolutely no reason other than our own amusement, or a desire to hang out with other people who have the same occupation as us.

Amusing ourselves through travel or meeting up for business is a multi-billion dollar industry. Here in Acadiana, the person charged with making sure we get our share of those billions is Ben Berthelot. 

 Ben Berthelot

Since 2012 Ben has been the President and CEO of the Lafayette Visitors and Convention Commission.

If you’re a tourist in Acadiana, unless you’re coming for a music festival, you’re probably not visiting for any specific reason. We don’t have a spectacular national park like The Grand Canyon, or a man-made attraction, like Disney World. If you’re a tourist here you’re probably coming to experience the food, music, and ambience – or what we call “daily life.”

One of the daily life attractions in Acadiana are our quaint small towns and the culture within them. Like Eunice and it’s famous Liberty Theater. 

Scott Fontenot

The person responsible for both the theater and the town is the Mayor of Eunice, Scott Fontenot.

Ben and Scott’s decisions and actions over the next few years are going to affect almost all of us in Lafayette and Eunice. This conversation is an insight into what they’re thinking and planning. 

Scott Fontenot, Ben Berthelot, Aileen Bennett

Photos at Cafe Vermilionville by Lucius Fontenot.