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Los Angeles attracts 44.2 mln visitors in 2014

Xinhua, May 6, 2015 Adjust font size:

A record 44.2 million visitors came to Los Angeles in 2014, the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board said Tuesday.

The number of visitors to Los Angeles was a 4.8 percent jump over 2013, according to data released by the board. A record 6.5 million of the visitors to the city were international travelers, a 5.6 percent increase over the previous year.

Visitors spent some 19.6 billion U.S. dollars in Los Angeles, a 6.8 percent jump from the previous year, with officials estimating 30.2 billion dollars from the total economic impact of tourism. Moreover, nearly one third of visitor spending came from international visitors.

Los Angeles started Nihao China (Hello China) in February 2014, a tourism campaign to attract more visitors from China. The program offers a series of seminars, culminating with China-Ready certification for businesses that meet specified criteria.

The Langham Huntington Hotel is one of the first China-Ready certificated businesses. Steven Parker, managing director of the hotel, said that guests from China account for 5 percent of the guests in the hotel and this number is increasing every year.

"We're going to cooperate with some travel agencies in China in the following year," he said, adding that a growing middle class in China is pushing visits from there.

"A shining star of our local economy, the tourism industry continues to thrive, supporting good-paying jobs for our families and generating significant revenue for our city's vital public services," Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said.

According to the board, hotel occupancy and hotel room nights both set record highs last year.

The local tourism industry offers 464,600 jobs, accounting for one of every nine workers in Los Angeles County, according to the board. Tourism contributed to the creation of 25,300 jobs in 2014, making tourism the county's top job-growth sector.

Meanwhile, statewide tourism agency Visit California announced that California tourism also reached record highs last year, with 251 million people traveling to the state, up 3 percent from the previous record of 243 million in 2013.

Visitors spent 117.5 billion dollars in California and supported more than 1 million jobs and generated 9.3 billion dollars in state and local tax revenue in California last year, according to Visit California. Endi