The message that the good folks at Los Angeles Tourism want to get out to a wide range of travelers right now, including meeting attendees and convention-goers alike, is to come for an event and stay for the evening. Hopefully, overnight. That is, make the most of your visit, whatever the reason is. While they direct most of the campaign to local and nearby residents and visitors, the same applies to out-of-town meetings and eventgoers. That is, for whatever reason one is in LA, like a concert, sporting event, meeting or convention, extend the stay and enjoy all that Los Angeles has to offer.
It makes perfect sense to me, and hopefully, meeting planners with scheduled events will forward the recommendation to their attendees. Stay awhile. There’s just so much to do in L.A. that the city has even launched a new website to highlight its many entertainment, cultural, and culinary options (www.discoverlosangeles.com).
According to a recently released announcement, it’s all part of a new advertising campaign under the banner of ‘Now Playing’ with a spend of $1 million, which aims to entice visitors to come for an event but also stay awhile in the vibrant City of Angels.
Adam Burke, President & CEO Los Angeles Tourism, explains the plan further: “With everything that’s new and ‘Now Playing’ in our City of Angels—including world-class entertainment, sports, arts and culture, and culinary offerings—there are endless experiences for visitors and locals alike.”
Appropriately, the campaign wants to attract just about everyone but particularly aims to court visitors and meeting-goers from within Los Angeles, as well as from short-haul markets like San Francisco, San Diego, Sacramento, Fresno, Santa Barbara, Palm Springs, Las Vegas, Phoenix and beyond.
“Based on annual survey data of U.S. travelers (whatever the purpose of their visit), more than half of LA’s top domestic feeder markets are within driving distance,” said Bill Karz, senior vice president of Brand & Digital Marketing, Los Angeles Tourism. “With LA set to host hundreds of sporting events, concerts, and festivals this summer (as well as meetings, conferences, and more), it’s the perfect time to launch this campaign and boost hotel room demand.”
It’s all about making the most of your visit when in Los Angeles. The campaign launch coincides with the debut of a new webpage on Discover Los Angeles, encouraging visitors to book a hotel near their upcoming event. It will be bookended by LA Pride in early June and Dine LA Restaurant Week, LA Tourism’s signature culinary program, which will return to a summer and winter rotation this year, kicking off from July 12-26.
The campaign’s launch follows LA Tourism’s annual year-end announcement, where the organization highlighted that it welcomed 41.9 million visitors in 2023 — that’s a 97 percent recovered to 2019, its benchmark year—including 43.3 million domestic visitors (100 percent recovered to 2019 levels) and 5.8 million international visitors (nearly 79 percent recovered to 2019).
Tourism to the City of Los Angeles generated $40.4 billion in total business sales (106.9 percent of 2019 levels), and more than 530,000 tourism-related careers for Angelenos. Planners and organizers who want to learn how to incorporate this latest marketing campaign into their upcoming event should visit www.discoverlosangeles.com/event-hotels.
