February 2018 News & Notes

Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board garnered top honors at Visit California’s Poppy Awards, the Golden State’s biennial celebration of the best and brightest tourism marketing efforts. L.A. Tourism took home “Best Overall Marketing Program” for its ‘Everyone is Welcome’ initiative as selected by a panel of industry marketing experts. Other finalists in this category included Disneyland Resort and Visit Napa Valley. Categories included best overall marketing programs (at three budget levels), best digital campaign, best content marketing initiative and best public relations campaign.

“The Poppy Awards celebrate California’s innovative, anything-is-possible spirit and raise the bar for travel marketing throughout the state and beyond,” said Caroline Beteta, president and CEO of Visit California. “Congratulations to the winners and finalists whose creativity and dedication inspire their colleagues and elevate California as a world-class tourism destination.”

L.A. Tourism launched its extension of the ‘Everyone is Welcome’ message, which will be the global theme for Los Angeles throughout 2018. A :30 film featuring the city’s diverse faces and places which make L.A. special launched online via digital platforms like Hulu, Youtube and Glassview, along with :10 videos on both Facebook and Instagram and display and banner ads throughout a variety of travel, lifestyle and cultural sites in the U.S., in Mexico City and in China starting March 15. Out of home in New York will include high impact boards near Times Square, Penn Station and at the Port Authority. Over 2,000 static and digital posters will be placed throughout the subway and will feature an “L.A. ♥” extension, which welcomes visitors to experience the love that L.A.’s faces and places have to offer.

Los Angeles International Airport reported record passenger traffic with 84.6 million total passengers in 2017, an increase of 4.5%. More than 24.8 million international passengers traveled through LAX in 2017, a year-over-year increase of 8.7%.

Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) Board of Airport Commissioners (BOAC) has approved LAX Integrated Express Solutions (LINXS) as the Recommended Developer (RD) and has initiated the first agreement between the parties. The agreement with LINXS sets in motion the path towards full contract approval by BOAC and the Los Angeles City Council in April to design, build, finance, operate and maintain (DBFOM) the Automated People Mover (APM) at LAX.