The mayor says New Orleans is the safest city in the nation for visitors. 

"We do better than every major city in America on how safe the city is for people that come in and visit," Mitch Landrieu said at a news conference on the ten day period from New Years Eve through the BCS Championship Game.

He says the stretch of tourist driven events went very well for the 300,000 people coming to town.

"It was a huge, huge, huge success that took a tremendous amount of work, and the citizens should really be proud of how great they looked and their city looked," Landrieu insisted.  "That is universally positive, not only in terms of other sporting events coming, but individuals who are thinking about moving businesses here."

And while he says New Orleans is the safest major city for tourists, the mayor acknowledged the murder problem in the city.

"We have a murder rate in this city that is ten time the national average."

Landrieu says the violent crime in New Orleans doesn't generally impact the fun that visitors have.

"Every now and then we have the conversance of the two, which we saw on Halloween night," the mayor explained.  "I think the public can septate the two."