Los Angeles Tourism at Work - November 2021

Meetings and Events are Center Stage at IMEX America
Meetings and Events are Center Stage at IMEX America
The Los Angeles Tourism Sales & Services Team put on quite the show in Las Vegas, rolling out the red carpet at IMEX America, one of the industry’s biggest tradeshows for Professional Meetings & Events. Our Los Angeles delegation included partners from L.A. LIVE, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Porsche Experience Los Angeles, and Universal Studios Hollywood, among others.

IMEX welcomed 10,500 total participants. During the trade show, our team members joined 249 California delegates and conducted appointments with the 4,500 global buyers with decision making power to book group business to Los Angeles. 

In addition to conducting appointments on the trade show floor, L.A. Tourism conducted a VIP press breakfast for members of the meetings industry media to better understand how the destination is a leader in hosting safe and secure meetings and events. 

Signature Travel Network Conference 
Across the way from IMEX in Las Vegas, our team attended the Signature Travel Network Conference, taking appointments with over 160 travel advisors. The meetings were an important exercise in establishing face-to-face relationships after so many months of virtual networking. L.A. Tourism was able to highlight key selling points for the destination and share compelling details about new and noteworthy hotels, restaurants, attractions and live events. 

Beijing Office Celebrates 15th Anniversary
This year L.A. Tourism celebrates the 15th anniversary of its Beijing office. In 2006, Los Angeles became the first City-level DMO to open its own full-time office overseas with the opening of the office in China. 

To celebrate the anniversary and promote the reopening of the borders to the United States, our team in China conducted a robust campaign that included a social media post and giveaway, congratulatory and milestone videos and a virtual press conference with Adam Burke to share key messages with top trade media. Outlets in attendance included National Tourism, China Travel Agent, CARNOC, TTG and Travel & Leisure, as well as Dragon Trail, our digital and social partner in China.

LAX Welcomes Back International Visitors From Key Markets
On November 8, Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) welcomed back international visitors from key markets as the United States reopened its borders to fully vaccinated travelers who are able to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test (NOTE – as of December 6, this test must be completed within 24 hours of flight departure, replacing the 72 hour timeframe that was initially announced on November 8.)

To celebrate the milestone, we partnered with LAX for joint media availability where our very own Kathy Smits (Senior Vice President, Global Tourism Development) conducted media interviews with every local television network.

With the November 8th reopening of U.S. borders to international guests, LAX anticipates seeing greater numbers of these critically important passengers in the coming days and weeks.

BTS Ignites Global Excitement

Throngs of travelers from across the country have visited L.A. this past week to catch a live performance of K-Pop group BTS, entertainers who summon Beatles-level enthusiasm amongst their "army" of fans. With the arrival of BTS, we also took the opportunity to use our Korean version of the Welcome Back video and create a short video to welcome them. We also partnered with Pacific Park to light up the Pacific Wheel in Santa Monica. The video has thus far received 1.5 million views across all our social channels & SoFi’s social.

We’re excited to welcome back @bts_bighit as they perform at @SoFiStadium Nov. 27-28 & Dec. 1-2. 다시 오신 것을 환영합니다! @pacpark is lighting up the night sky tonight #BTS #StartYourComeback #PTD_ON_STAGE_LA 🎵 BTS (방탄소년단) 'Permission to Dance' pic.twitter.com/nLTIDEOoki