Los Angeles is seeing an upturn in convention business in 2014 with confirmed bookings at the LA Convention Center already surpassing 2013’s total.
The Convention Center has booked 29 large scale conventions for 2014, exceeding the 22 conventions held there last year.
LA tourism officials expect that to translate into 266,000 room nights this year, easily surpassing the 150,000 nights generated from 2013 events.
The Convention Center has over 720,000 square feet of exhibit space and last week hosted the National Tour Association Convention for 3,600 travel professionals.
Visitation has been at record levels for the last three years and Los Angeles has 10 new hotels scheduled to open this year, with a development pipeline adding an extra 5,000 rooms through 2017.
The city is also working on a plan to attract a NFL franchise with a proposal to construct a new stadium adjacent to the Convention Center.
While the long term benefits to the city are clear, tourism officials have said some organizers are holding off booking conventions for 2017 onward as they want to avoid any potential disruption during stadium construction works.
