The Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau has mapped out the key areas of its marketing strategy for next year, following the opening of its first UK office six months ago.
Activities include stronger promotional tie-ups with the airlines which between them now operate 12 daily non-stop flights from London to LA, as well as a PR-led consumer campaign. The latter exercise is aimed at going beyond LA’s image as a West Coast city famous for its movie-making traditions to encompass all of the attractions of LA County.
Another key element of the campaign is to promote longer stays in the area, which has traditionally become a one-day stopover primarily for overseas visitors heading across the Pacific.
One of the main tools for raising awareness is the LA Travel Academy – recently set up by the LACVB for UK agents that specialise in selling the US.
The curriculum comprises of a series of four-day educationals based at the campus of the University of California, from where participants sample the county’s attractions.
The first fam trip has just been completed and another three are scheduled before next June when around 200 agents will have completed the course.
LACVB UK director Europe Francine Sheridan said: “The response so far has been very good and we will follow this up to see how we can adapt it for future trips.
“Generally, we want to establish better marketing programmes with airlines and expand both the stopover market and length of stay.
“We need to promote LA to people before they buy their travel arrangements because, when they arrive on a stopover, they realise they need more time as there is so much to do. Ideally, we would stays of three to seven days instead of the usual airport overnight.”
Sheridan said the UK office may adopt a current LACVB domestic campaign under which the county is portrayed as a ‘series of villages’, with areas being promoted at specific times and for particular markets. An example is the beach resort of Venice, promoted as a fun, active place for the young market.
However, Sheridan said: “For the UK market for year one, we want to sell the idea that there’s something for everyone, and we will be pushing the beaches, city aspects, style, architecture, and culture.
“We will be promoting all the regions within LA County individually under an umbrella campaign, including Hollywood, Santa Monica and Long Beach.”