Two-dozen top political and business leaders from Louisiana are in New York City this week, trying to use the lure of clean air and an attractive tax code to woo companies to the city best known for Mardi Gras.

“You may think you know the New Orleans region – because of historical reasons – but you don’t,” the president of the area’s economic development alliance, Mark Drennen, said.

Yesterday and today, the visitors, who include the New Orleans mayor, Ray Nagin, the Louisiana lieutenant governor, Mitchell Landrieu, and economic-development officials, as well as executives of BankOne and Entergy, are pitching their home state to about 25 site consultants at firms including Price Waterhouse Coopers and Cushman & Wakefield. Here’s what they’re saying:

Though Louisiana wants to maintain and ramp up what it already does well, including tourism, shipping, and energy, it also wants to attract new industries. It wants to become a hub for biotechnology and life sciences, for example, by capitalizing on existing resources at Tulane and Louisiana State universities.

Mr. Landrieu – who is the brother of Senator Landrieu of Louisiana and son of Moon Landrieu, the former New Orleans mayor – said his state is neither “sleepy,” nor “backwater.” He said it’s competing nationally, not just in the South.

In regard to taxes, Mr. Landrieu said that for every job a company creates in the state, it gets a tax credit. Also, the state is creating special incentive programs to promote certain industries. For example, new film tax credits have made it 20% cheaper to film a movie in Louisiana than in any other state.

In the past three years, the number of film industry jobs has jumped to 750 from 40 under the program.

An official at a local economic-development group, Greater New Orleans Inc. said the state also has a research and development tax credit. The official, Sarah Kracke, said companies could sell their tax credits for up to 75% of their value.

The president and CEO of Greater New Orleans Inc., Mr. Drennen, said the state has the fourth-lowest personal taxes in the country and a business could buy Class A office space for about $14 a square foot. That compares to more than $47 a square foot in Midtown Manhattan.

A number of the people who sat down yesterday morning with The New York Sun said they wanted to convince New Yorkers that New Orleans has more going for it than its festivals and food.

The president of St. John the Baptist parish, Nickie Monica, said Bourbon Street and Mardi Gras are “great,” but they’re not all that her state has to offer. “We have a great business environment,” she said.

The director of location analysis at Cushman & Wakefield, Michael Henderson, who’s set to meet with the Louisiana officials today, said it’s all the rage now for state and city representatives to travel around, visiting businesses and consultants to generate interest.

He said firms might be interested in moving to New Orleans to be near its higher-education system and its ports. But he said the hurricanes and the perception that it’s known as a “place to go have fun,” rather than a place to do business, might detract from its appeal.

“The real key for them is to get the word out,” Mr. Henderson said.