Recollections of Bermuda were shared by the mayor of New Orleans, Mitchell (Mitch) Landrieu, when he met Premier Michael Dunkley.

The two men met this week as the Louisiana city hosted the Risk & Insurance Management Society’s (RIMS) annual conference.

The city’s mayor celebrated his honeymoon on the Island in 1987, when he stayed for a week at the Fairmont Southampton.

“I remember pink, and I remember it was spectacular,” said Mr Landrieu.

Bermuda’s connection with New Orleans and the US Gulf Coast was strengthened after the devastating wreaked by hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma in 2005.

The Island’s reinsurers paid 30 per cent of the insured losses incurred as a result of the hurricanes.

Mr Dunkley and Grant Gibbons, Economic Development Minister, visited Mr Landrieu at the city hall in New Orleans for an informal meeting where they discussed ties and commonalities between the Island and the city, including tourism, business development, and the perennial threat of hurricanes.

The mayor had placed a Bermuda flag in his office ahead of welcoming the Premier and Minister on Tuesday.

During the meeting the Premier told Mr Landrieu: “We all share problems in the world, and we Bermudians think of you here in New Orleans.”

Mr Dunkley, Dr Gibbons and Finance Minister Bob Richards were among the Bermuda contingent at RIMS, which attracted some 10,000 risk management professionals and other senior executives and decision-makers.

The Bermuda Business Development Agency, the Bermuda Monetary Authority and more than 150 executives connected with Bermuda’s insurance and reinsurance sector attended the conference, which was held in the Ernest N Morial Convention Centre, and which concluded yesterday.