LOS ANGELES, February 15, 2008 — Los Angeles City Councilmember Tom LaBonge has announced that four journalists from Brazil, Germany, New Zealand and Taiwan have been selected to participate in a week-long journalism fellowship program designed to increase awareness and appreciation of Los Angeles by residents of its 24 Sister Cities around the world and to increase tourism to Los Angeles from those regions.
“As one of the world’s great cities, Los Angeles has a long and rich history of cultural exchange and trade with its Sister Cities,” said LaBonge, who is also president of Sister Cities of Los Angeles, Inc., a nonprofit corporation. “This journalist fellowship program aims to increase understanding and appreciation of Los Angeles, to increase interaction between the people of Los Angeles and those of our Sister Cities, and to encourage visitors from around the world to come and experience LA as a world-class center of arts and culture.”
The Fellows will receive all-expense-paid trips to Los Angeles for an intensive immersion program to learn first-hand about the arts, culture, history, neighborhoods and people of Los Angeles. The privately funded program is administered by LA INC. The Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau. The 2008 program runs April 20-27.
The 2008 Los Angeles-Sister Cities Journalist Fellows are:
AUCKLAND: Glenda Wakeham, Senior Producer, Radio New Zealand
BERLIN: Sasha Lehnartz, Reporter, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Germany
SALVADOR DE BAHIA: Anelise Cardosa, Editor/Reporter, Zero Hora, Brazil
TAIPEI: Tai-lin (Sandy) Huang, News Editor, Taipei Times, Taiwan
The media outlets these journalists represent reach 1.7 million readers or listeners daily in their respective countries. Collectively, these countries account for some 456,000 annual visitors who spend more than $322 million in LA each year.
The 2008 Fellows were chosen through a competitive application process open to all journalists employed by media outlets that serve L.A.’s Sister Cities. Applications include resumes, work samples, U.S. travel history, letters of recommendation and personal statements on the applicant’s interest in Los Angeles. Preference is given to journalists from countries that are major sources or that have the potential to be major sources of visitors to Los Angeles.
Since the program was created in 2005, The Los Angeles-Sister Cities Journalist Fellowship already has hosted working journalists from Canada, China, Germany, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, and South Korea. Together, these countries account for more than 2.8 million annual visitors to Los Angeles, who spend $1.4 billion in the local economy each year. To date, past Fellows have produced nearly four dozen print or broadcast features on Los Angeles as a premier travel destination.
Los Angeles’ Sister Cities are: Athens, Greece; Auckland, New Zealand; Beirut, Lebanon; Berlin, Germany; Bordeaux, France; Busan, Korea; Eilat, Israel; Giza, Egypt; Guangzhou (formerly Canton), People’s Republic of China; Ishia, Italy; Jakarta, Indonesia; Kaunas, Lithuania; Lusaka, Zambia; Makati, Philippines; Mexico City, Mexico; Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India; Nagoya, Japan; Salvador de Bahia, Brazil; San Salvador, El Salvador; Split, Croatia; St. Petersburg, Russia; Taipei, Taiwan; Vancouver, Canada; and Yerevan, Armenia.
Sponsors of Los Angeles-Sister Cities Journalist Fellowship have included Air New Zealand; American Airlines; American Film Institute; Autry National Center; California Institute of the Arts (CalArts); City of Los Angeles; Colburn School for the Performing Arts; El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical National Monument; German Consulate-General, Los Angeles; J. Paul Getty Trust; Hammer Museum; Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens; Le Petite Retreat Day Spa; The Lobster Restaurant; Los Angeles Conservancy; Los Angeles County Arts Commission; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Los Angeles Opera; Los Angeles Philharmonic Association; Los Angeles World Airports; Loyola Marymount University; Music Center; Morphosis Architects; Museum of Contemporary Art; New Zealand Consulate General, Los Angeles; Northwest Airlines; Patina Group; Philippine Consulate in Los Angeles; Port of Los Angeles; the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT); Shopper Shuttle LLC; Skirball Cultural Center; Walt Disney Company; Wilshire Grand Hotel, The Official Hotel of the Los Angeles-Sister Cities Journalist Fellowship; Universal Studios Hollywood; United Airlines; and the University of Southern California.
The Sister Cities Program was created in 1956 by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower to strengthen partnerships between U.S. and international cities, with the hope that personal relationships fostered through Sister City affiliations would increase trade, cultural exchange and mutual understanding, thereby lessening the chance of future world conflicts. Los Angeles began its Sister Cities program in 1959 with Nagoya, Japan, and now includes 24 Sister Cities on six continents.
