Houma, La. -
One word comes up over and over again in Terrebonne Parish: bayou.
"You either live up the bayou or down the bayou or you cross the bayou," says Sharon Alford of the Houma Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. "Directions here all refer back to our bayous."
So when parish leaders decided to give this community a new brand, only one slogan made sense.
Welcome to "Louisiana's Bayou Country."
Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet unveiled the new brand Thursday and you'll soon see it on everything from shirts to signs. Paid for with BP tourism recovery dollars, the branding reflects the evolution of this parish from an oil town to a tourist destination.
"Tourism is an important aspect because we think we have something great here in Terrebonne Parish and we'd like to share it with the rest of the United States," says Claudet.
The new brand illustrates what makes this parish unique. More than 40 bayous run through it, stocked with fish and shrimp.
Charter boat captain Chris Schouest says the people are also one of a kind.
"I've traveled all over the country and we just got a different breed of very hospitable people that I don't know, it's a place that I wouldn't want to be any other place but South Louisiana and in Houma, Louisiana," says Schouest.
Parish leaders hope the designation as "Louisiana's Bayou Country" will erase the stigma of the oil spill. The sport fishing business here is still slow, more than two years later.
"We just gotta get the word out and let people know that we got the best fishing in the world and promoting tourism, that's what we trying to do," says Schouest.
