Lafayette Named Among Top Hip College Towns

The City of Lafayette has scored another accolade! ConventionSouth magazine named the city a hip, historic college town in the South.
The meeting industry magazine cited Lafayette, which is home to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, in its 'South’s Historic College Towns with Hip Group Appeal' 2014 list. After researching news articles and talking with local tourism bureaus, the magazine editors picked one city in each of 15 states it covers.

Though the magazine has spotlighted college towns before, this is the first year ConventionSouth has selected historic and hip college towns, said Marlane Bundock, editor of the magazine.

Other college towns on the list include Tuscaloosa, Ala., home of the University of Alabama, Gainesville, Fla., home of the University of Florida, Oxford, Miss., home of the University of Mississippi, Chapel Hill, N.C., home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and College Station, Texas, home of Texas A & M University.

In the last few months, Lafayette also was named one of the Top 10 Foodie Cities by Livability.com and, for the second year in a row, Lafayette’s Festival International de Louisiane won Best World Music Festival from About.com. The city recently garnered several top rankings for its economic strength and job growth, including ranked No. 1 overall, No. 1 regionally, and No. 1 within its population category among 380 metropolitan areas in the U.S., according to Area Development.