LA highlights its tourist attractions

The Tourism and Convention Board of Los Angeles unveils the Los Angeles showroom in Beijing.[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The Tourism and Convention Board of Los Angeles unveiled a showroom highlighting the city’s attractions in Beijing on Sept 10 as it endeavors to reach a double-digit increase in Chinese tourists to the largest city on the west coast of the United States.

The showroom, located at the China Youth Travel Service building, displays pictures and videos covering all aspects of a trip to LA. Visitors to the showroom will get a visual experience of LA and expert advice and answers to questions about visiting LA.

"In 2013, a record 570,000 Chinese tourists chose LA as their entry city for their visit to America, a 21 percent increase from 2012. China has became the top tourist source market for LA," said Chang Hong, regional director of the LA Tourism and Convention Board in Beijing.

To boost the soaring growth of Chinese tourists, the LA Tourism and Convention Board launched a China-specific marketing campaign. "Hello, China", includes a Chinese-language site, called helloLA.cn and a "shop LA" campaign, which looks to tap into the huge buying power of Chinese tourists.

A "China-ready" certification project that evaluates tourist services in LA and trains Chinese-speaking tourist guides and local agencies was also launched.

"Chinese visitors to LA are bucking the trend a little bit as the trend for most of the US is down slightly, but the year-on-year for us is up 20 percent," said Ernest Wooden Jr., president and CEO of the LA Tourism and Convention Board.

"My expectation over the next several years, as far as I can see, is that we will increase the number of Chinese visitors to LA by double digits."

 "We are working closely with airline companies and airports to do more direct flights from second-tier cities to LA," Wooden added. So far, there are six daily direct flights from the Chinese mainland to Los Angels. The LA Tourism and Convention Board will open a new office in Guangzhou next year.