March 2013 News and Notes

New LA Tourism ad campaigns, sales team leadership and record-breaking dineLA highlight an exciting start to the year.

On Feb. 18, LA Tourism launched its new domestic spring advertising campaign designed to spur spring and early summer travel. A series of three TV commercials are running in key domestic markets including San Francisco, San Diego, Sacramento, Fresno and Phoenix with a complementary digital campaign in these markets plus New York City.  The spots feature the breadth and depth of activity LA offers to combat lingering perceptions that LA is just red carpet fanfare. LA-based celebrities Mario Lopez, host of “America’s Got Talent” and “EXTRA, and world-renowned chef Wolfgang Puck, make cameos in the spots to illustrate that you never know who you might have a “chance encounter” with when in LA.  The spots have been well-received and can be viewed here: http://www.discoverlosangeles.com/blog/discover-los-angeles-tv-commercials.

LA Tourism launched an online campaign in key international markets including the UK, Australia and Canada designed to capture travelers’ attention during the travel planning cycle – dreaming, researching and booking.  The creative features the variety of experiences awaiting in LA – from city break to beach break. The ads began appearing on Feb. 18 and will run through early summer to keep the destination top-of-mind for spring and summer travel planning.

Veteran hotel sales and marketing executive Roberta Rinker-Ludloff has joined LA Tourism as Senior Vice President Sales and Client Services.  Roberta began her career at the Sheraton Anaheim before eventually assuming the role of Regional Director of Sales for the group of prestigious Sheraton properties in Hawaii, where she gained significant experience in working with the Pacific Rim region.  At Starwood Hotels & Resorts, she led the global sales team based in White Plains, NY where she developed strategic market direction for the business-to-business sales segments. Following this, at Hilton Hotels her responsibilities included leading a regional sales and marketing team focused on domestic and international wholesaler co-op sales programs that resulted in double-digit percentage revenue growth for the organization’s three properties in Hawaii.   More recently, she was based in Hilton Hotel Corporation’s former headquarters in Beverly Hills, CA, representing the Conrad brand as Vice President, Brand Performance, and was previously Conrad’s Vice President, Sales and Marketing/North America.  Roberta was also a Vice President with the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau.

As a tourism industry leader, Roberta has served on the Board of Directors of the U.S. Travel Association and as Chairperson of the Oahu Visitors Bureau.  She was also recognized by Travel Agent magazine as one of the “Most Powerful Women in Travel” for three years.

Klaus Peters has joined LA Tourism to oversee Client Service.  Klaus’ hospitality management experience spans properties in five countries and includes instituting Mobil Five Star training programs.  He has managed a diverse collection of hotels ranging from large convention and resort hotels with Hyatt Hotels and Resorts, Hilton Hotels Corporation and ITT Sheraton Corporation; to private, small luxury hotels such as The Watergate Hotel and The Fairfax Hotel at Embassy Row in Washington, D.C., Cheeca Lodge in Islamorada, FL and The Delamar Greenwich Harbor in Greenwich, CT.  He began his career at the historic Schlosshotel Kronberg, a five-star luxury castle hotel in Germany, and  his extensive background in hospitality operations will bring a new level of destination service to our domestic and international meetings and incentive attendees in his role as Vice President, Client Services.

Both Roberta and Klaus are looking forward to meeting our membership and working together for innovative ways to bring new clientele to Los Angeles and to ensure they have a unique and memorable experience.

A creative marketing campaign, themed “Eat Your Heart Out LA,” and strong PR push resulted in a record $16M in visitor spending during this year’s Winter dineLA Restaurant Week event, more than double the spending during last Winter’s event.  Record breaking web traffic soared to more than half-a-million visitors to the Restaurant Week site, almost 50% higher compared to the Summer 2012 event; and the email subscriber base increased 38%. More than 284 restaurants throughout LA County participated in the event.
 

BA has announced that beginning Oct. 15, UK travelers can fly direct from London Heathrow to LAX. To mark the launch, fares to Los Angeles are now on sale and start from £499 return in World Traveller (economy) with a special £380 upgrade available for customers wanting to move up to World Traveller Plus.  Club World return fares start from £1,900 per person. This flight represents the first A380 from the UK.

The Los Angeles tourism industry’s record-breaking 41.4 million visitors generated $16.5 billion in visitor spending, $30.5 billion in economic impact and supported 324,000 jobs in 2012, according to a study completed by Micronomics for LA Tourism.  Leisure and Hospitality was the county’s leading sector for job creation in 2012, adding 10,000 jobs.  The study also quantified total domestic and international LA visitor spending which included: Lodging - $4.4 billion; Food & Beverage - $4.3 billion; Transportation - $3.2 billion; Shopping  - $1.8 billion; Entertainment - $1.7 billion; and Other Tourism Activities - $1 billion.  The additional impact from the circulation of this direct spending through the local economy contributed another $14 billion in secondary economic activity.