WORDS FROM WOODEN – January, 2014

Happy New Year! Nothing beats being able to share good news to kick off 2014. I was proud to join Mayor Eric Garcetti on Jan. 6 to announce a record-breaking 42.2 million visitors to Los Angeles in 2013, our third consecutive record-breaking year.

And, we didn’t just break one record – we welcomed a record 6.2 million international visitors, had the highest-ever annual hotel occupancy rate at 76.8%, and saw a record 27.2 million hotel room nights sold in 2013. These records underscore the powerful draw that Los Angeles has, and are a strong indication that we are on-pace to reach our North Star goal of 50 million visitors by 2020.

Our record-breaking year kept up the good business to the last night of the year, with LA County’s hotels reaching a countywide occupancy of nearly 93% on New Year's Eve. That’s 6.2% more than last year and a greater year-over-year growth than any other big city destination. LA County has about twice as many rooms (96,967) as Orange County (53,801), so LA County surpassed Anaheim/Orange County in volume of room nights sold on New Year’s Eve. This solidifies LA’s position as a Top 5 destination for New Year’s Eve nationwide. Factors driving this success include our unbeatable warm weather, the Rose Bowl Game with Michigan playing for the first time in years, and New Year’s Eve events such as the huge public celebration at Grand Park in Downtown.
 
Our destination marketing initiatives played an important role in driving up visitation beyond our 2013 forecast. But we won’t stop there. In the New Year, we will roll out a new integrated marketing campaign in key domestic feeder markets such as New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, San Diego and Phoenix, as well as our key international markets including the U.K., Australia, Canada and China. Soon, we will have representation in Brazil, a market with huge future potential for LA visitation.  

We will also continue promotion of the city’s strong cultural and event offerings, with the goal of driving up visitation and hotel room nights. We’ll continue the tremendously successful Museum Season program, which this fall drove nearly 30,000 hotel room nights. We’re kicking off the New Year with Awards Season and Endless Entertainment promotions, and our dineLA Restaurant Week program which has become the country’s largest program of its kind.

To become the definitive online travel resource for Los Angeles, we have innovative online and social media marketing plans lined up, including the launch of versions of our discoverLosAngeles.com website in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish and Portuguese. This will bring the destination and all it has to offer directly to travel consumers in key overseas markets to help them plan their visits.

We will be moving forward with a new comprehensive media campaign to attract more domestic and international meetings and conventions business to Los Angeles, and will build upon our strong partnerships with the Los Angeles Convention Center and its new private operator, AEG Facilities to grow LA’s meetings and conventions business. 

I thank all of our members and partners for working together on this great achievement for Los Angeles in 2013, and I look forward to working with you on setting another tourism record in 2014.

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Best Wishes, 
Ernest Wooden, Jr.
President and CEO
Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board