Joey Durel: Festival International A Boon For Acadiana, Highlights Culture

LAFAYETTE, La. (KPEL) -- With Festival International de Louisiane coming up soon, City-Parish President Joey Durel took a few minutes to talk with Carroll Ross about how important the annual festival is to the region's economy.

Durel cited the city of Scott and the more than 25,000 people the city attracted to its Boudin Festival.

"It's an opportunity for us to put a good foot forward and let people become ambassadors for us," Durel said. "When they leave here and they've had a good experience, they do a lot more than we could ever pay for in advertising."

But sometimes more important than the direct economic impact the festival provides, it's the "intangible things that are much more productive to us," Durel said, "and those are the things that the very nature of their being intangible aren't always as easy to put a measurement on."