Los Angeles Tourism will expand its efforts in China, the destination’s fastest-growing overseas market, as part of an initiative to generate 50 million visitors by 2020
LA Tourism will open an office in Shanghai.
China became LA’s No 1 overseas market as of last year when it surpassed Australia.
Los Angeles was the first U.S. destination to open an office in China, in Beijing in 2006, and is the only global city to have a licence from the China government to operate its own tourism office.
Last year, the Los Angeles tourism industry broke every record in the book – total visitation, total domestic visitors, total international visitors, and annual hotel occupancy.
The destination is on pace to set another total visitation record in 2013 of 42 million visitors.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Chinese visitors spent more in Los Angeles than nearly all other international visitors, "making their potential contributions to our economy vital".
