More than 6,500 business travel buyers, suppliers, industry leaders and business travel journalists will be attending the 2008 NBTA International Convention & Exposition July 27-30, at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The event is widely recognized as the must-attend event for the travel industry.
The convention's programming has been created to empower attendees to maximize value for their companies and features more than 40 seminars on the most important topics in business travel. More than 400 companies will be exhibiting in the Expo.
Los Angeles welcomed a record number of visitors in 2007 -- 25.9 million. Just as leisure and business travelers throng to LA, so are the members of NBTA. This year’s meeting is poised to break attendance records.
“LA tourism is a bright spot in the city’s economy,” says Mark Liberman, president and CEO of LA INC. The Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau. “Our last fiscal year saw a 29 percent increase in bookings citywide and a 22 percent increase in room nights booked. Tourism is the No. 2 industry in Los Angeles and an important sector of our economy.” Additionally, attendance for conventions held at the LA Convention Center in the last fiscal year rose as much as 20 percent.
“Seeing this trend upward, meeting professionals are booking LA facilities at a never-before seen rate,” said Liberman. LA INC. predicts that by the end of the 2008 fiscal year 43 citywide conventions will be booked. That translates to 646,000 room nights and an economic impact on LA of $355 million.
In 2007 most of LA’s domestic business travelers were from New York, D.C., Nevada, Illinois and Arizona. Of LA’s 4.8 million international visitors in 2007, 25 percent traveled because of business. LA’s major overseas markets include the U.K., Japan, Australia, France, Germany, South Korea and China.
During the 2008 convention, NBTA delegates will experience NOKIA Theatre Los Angeles, the state of the art Theatre that is the showplace of the L.A. LIVE Sports and Entertainment District. Located in Downtown Los Angeles, this new entertainment center will include restaurants, nightclubs and entertainment venues when phase two opens in Fall 2008. The legendary Conga Room and Lucky Strike Bowling Center will be a part of L.A. LIVE. Also opening in the fall is the Grammy Museum, a facility that will explore and celebrate the enduring legacies of all forms of music, the creative process, the art and technology of the recording process. The history of the premier recognition of excellence in recorded music — the GRAMMY® Award will be a key part of this one-of-a-kind "21st Century Museum" that will include interactive, permanent and traveling exhibits.
Part of LA’s appeal to business travelers is its sense of freshness. LA’s reputation for reinventing itself includes hotels. A third of all LA INC. member hotels have undergone a recent renovation or will undergo remodeling in the coming months. Recently opened Los Angeles hotels include the 223-room The London West Hollywood, the 268-room Hotel Palomar Los Angeles in Westwood and the 122-room Thompson Beverly Hills. Impressive new hotels opening in the future include the JW Marriott Hotel Los Angeles at L.A. LIVE; The Ritz-Carlton Los Angeles; W Hotel in Hollywood; SLS at Beverly Hills, Montage Beverly Hills and Teranea Resort in the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
A rich cultural landscape is one LA’s great assets. LA surpasses New York in the percentage of visitors who attend museums and art galleries, symphony concerts and jazz concerts, as well as historic sites and live theater. The recent opening of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM) at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art(LACMA) is the latest jewel.
Of course LA is also justly famous for fun places. Universal Studios Hollywood’s newest addition The Simpsons Ride is drawing huge crowds to the theme park.
Another great asset is LA’s walkability -- always a boon for business travelers. In a recent study by Walk Score, LA was ranked in the top 10 most walkable cities in the nation. Downtown LA is the second most-walkable neighborhood in LA.
About NBTA
The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) is the world's premier business travel organization. U.S.-based NBTA and its regional subsidiaries NBTA Asia Pacific, NBTA Canada and NBTA Mexico serve more than 3,200 members in 30 nations around the globe. NBTA has 41 U.S. Chapters with more than 5,000 members. NBTA members are corporate and government travel and meetings managers, as well as travel service providers, who collectively manage and direct more than $170 billion of global business travel expenditures annually. The association provides industry-leading networking, education & professional development, research, news & information, and advocacy. For more information, visit www.nbta.org.
About LA INC.
LA INC. The Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau is a private, nonprofit business association whose primary mission is to market and promote Los Angeles as the premier site for meetings, conventions and leisure travel. Though not part of city government, LA INC. is recognized as the city's official tourism marketing organization. For more information, visit the official visitor information Web site of Los Angeles at www.discoverLosAngeles.com.
