| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 17/07/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 40 |
| Copyright: Other |
California by alan moore
Hooray for Hollywood: Tinseltown has introduced a new one-price CityPassLAtries out latest profiling technique
LACVB works on UK marketing strategy
LOS ANGELES has developed a new UK marketing strategy that will connect visitor types with targeted destination product. Client categories include the mature market, families, young adults, the independent traveller and stopover traffic.The visitor profiles will be combined with aspects of Los Angeles which the LA Convention and Visitors Bureau calls “design products”, such as lifestyle, entertainment, sports, culture and shopping.
LACVB European director Francine Sheridan said: “We will adopt this approach for everything we do over the next 12 months in both general PR and marketing terms.
“This will include working with tour operators on trade campaigns as well as consumer promotions.
“It will help us to better position the LA tour product at a time when the county is getting more exposure in operators’ programmes.”
She said that up to now, coverage of LA has been mostly blended in with general southern California content so that a lot of non-LA product was branded as being in the county area.
“New brochures coming on line will highlight a tremendous improvement in the spread and diversity of the LA product,” Sheridan added.
“For example, Premier Holidays is increasing its LA coverage to six pages for next year, including two pages of information on what to see and do and taking Anaheim out of the LA section as a separate entity.”
She also revealed that a new UK operator, California Holidays, is launching a 148-page holiday programme dedicated to the state which includes 21 pages on Los Angeles alone. It went out to the trade this month (see story page 35).
In line with its new marketing plan, the LACVB is also conducting independent consumer research into what potential UK travellers think the destination offers.
One of the key messages to get over is the fact LA is not only a city but also a 4,000sq mile county which includes other places such as Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Long Beach, Santa Monica, Pasadena, Malibu, Catalina Island and the San Fernando Valley.
In addition, the bureau is continuing with its LA Travel Academy programme, which has seen around 200 UK retail staff travelling to California over the past 12 months to complete a four-day university-style course on the product.
“We are now going to do another 12-month programme, although dates have yet to be confirmed.
“Each session has cost the LACVB about $16,000, but in fact the total expenditure of each trip is four or five times that.”
New product
LA COUNTY
Brentwood Hills: the J Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Centre, a huge arts and cultural complex set in 110 acres, is now open. Admission is free.