Los Angeles sees record number of visitors

LOS ANGELES

"We have a record year this year with 41.4 million visitors, which represented a 2.5 percent increase over last year, tremendous domestic visitation. And for the first time ever, China became our No. 1 overseas market," said Susan Lomax with the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board.

More tourists means more tourist dollars for Los Angeles and more jobs created in the county. In fact, visitors to Los Angeles spent more than $16.5 billion on hotels, attractions, restaurants and cultural venues.

"Every turn holds something else that you've seen somewhere and that has a feel to it, that's so L.A.," said Adam Risbridger from Toronto, Canada.

The Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board credits big investments in development in downtown and Hollywood for attracting visitors.

"This year, we had such incredible news with 'Transformers' and Universal Studios Hollywood. We had Endeavour at the California Science Center, and more and more people are hearing about the revitalization of downtown," said Lomax.

So how does Los Angeles keep up the momentum to keep the visitors coming?

"We're really excited about some ofthe new hotels on line, and constantly working with the local community to talk about ways that we can create new experiences for visitors," said Lomax.

Many people visit during awards season, hoping to do some star gazing.

"But then they go out and they experience everything else that there is to do in L.A. They go back, they tell those stories, and that inspires more people to come to L.A.," said Lomax.

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