A culture diving wall, fake news & travel bans couldn’t trump Los Angeles’ tourism goals, which reached a record of 50m visitors (42.5 million domestic & 7.5 million international) for 2018.
Los Angeles’ welcoming spirit and grand gestures of acceptance, along with nearly 2,000 new hotel rooms and a growing culinary and cultural scene. counteracted negative politics over the last 12 months to attract 1.5 million more tourists than the previous year.
Australians maintained their position as La La Land’s second-largest overseas market, with some 426,000 business and leisure travellers crossing the Pacific last year, up two percent in 2017. L.A. Tourism plans to attract more Australians into the City of Angels in 2019, as it celebrates five years since opening its local Sydney office.
Image: Paul Hanaoka/Unsplash
Well ahead of Australia was arrivals Mexico, which climbed to its highest ever of 1.8 million, while China reached 1.2 million and Canada exceeded 780,000.
The city’s tourism leaders, Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board, celebrated the eighth-consecutive year of tourism growth by reminding travellers worldwide that they’re all welcome in the diverse and economically sound destination.
“Los Angeles is a place where everyone is welcome, and tourism strengthens our diversity, grows our economy, and supports good-paying jobs for families across our city.”
Mayor Eric Garcetti
“Surpassing 50 million annual visitors two years ahead of schedule is the latest milestone in our ongoing work to bring Los Angeles to the world, and the world to Los Angeles.”
In surpassing 50 million total visitors, Los Angeles set new tourism records for domestic and international visitation, hosting an estimated 42.5 million domestic visitors (3 percent increase) and 7.5 million international visitors (3.6 percent increase).
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