But while the music, food and good times have come back, the crowds have not and the city is struggling to make ends meet while its main industry remains crippled.

With more than 10 million visitors a year, tourism was once a 5.5 billion dollar industry in New Orleans, accounting for 40 percent of the city's tax revenues and employing 85,000 people.

That changed when Katrina flooded 80 percent of the city and scenes of chaos, deprivation and violence were broadcast worldwide. The category 3 hurricane swept ashore August 29, killing more than 1,300 along the US Gulf Coast.

Mardi Gras coincided with the six-month anniversary of the storm and New Orleans launched a massive public relations campaign to convince tourists that it was safe to come. It was a surprising success: more than 700,000 people came for the week-long party.

Leisure travel is back to about 40 percent of pre-Katrina levels and local officials have high hopes for the fall when the cruise ships return and around 30 to 40 percent of previously booked conventions will flood the streets with name-tag totting tourists.

Bringing the crowds back in greater numbers requires a shift in public perceptions, said Kelly Schulz, a spokeswoman for the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau. "It's really a tale of two cities," she said in a recent interview. "There's tremendous devastation in the outlying neighborhoods and that's going to be a long road to recovery. But what the tourist sees is better than before."

The main tourist areas - the French Quarter, Garden District and Uptown - escaped the flooding and suffered only minor wind damage. Many hotels have undergone major renovations and the convention center - the scene of such despair a year ago - has been completely redone.

"It's as if nothing happened," said Melissa Bochicchi as she took a break during the American Psychological Association convention. "There's a huge disconnect between what I saw on TV and what I saw here - it's eerie that the city has returned to such a state of functionality."

While some tourists and conventions have returned out of a desire to help fund the city's recovery, many more are scared off by the news that the National Guard had to be called back to deal with rising violence and that bodies are still being discovered in the wreckage.

"People back home wouldn't come," said Donna Kitzie, whose friends thought it would be dangerous for her to be left alone while her husband attended a conference. "They're scared, and it's sad -- that's not a vacation."

Local businesses are struggling to make ends meet.

The iconic Caf� du Monde is doing better than most, with sales at its French Market location finally up to 73 percent of pre-Katrina levels, said owner Burt Benrud. His other locations are only doing about 31 percent of previous sales and that's probably a good barometer for businesses throughout the city, many of which could close if things don't improve soon.

"We're just taking the wait and see approach," Benrud said. "Things will come back. It might be as soon as the spring when the convention center gets back up to full speed."

Businesses that don't make it into the guidebooks might not have that long.

"We're losing a lot of money," said Jesus Cantor, who owns a gift shop on Decatur Street with the usual assortment of gag t-shirts, Mardi Gras beads and masks. "If we didn't have a lease we would have closed already."

There are some advantages to the thinner crowds, said Schulz of the visitors bureau. You can get a table at a top restaurant without a reservation and "you can get some great values right now."

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