Breakaway From LACVB Urged in Westside Proposal

By HOWARD FINE

Staff Reporter

In a sign of growing frustration with the Los Angeles Convention & Visitors Bureau, the West Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce is considering a separate convention and visitors bureau for the Westside.

Last week, the chamber’s executive board voted to form a committee of Westside hotels, restaurants and associated businesses to explore forming a bureau. The motion goes before the full board on Nov. 4.

On another front, city officials did not indicate late last week whether bureau president George Kirkland would be participating in L.A. Mayor James Hahn’s upcoming trade mission to Asia. One of the chief aims of the 10-day trip to Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan this month is to promote tourism from Asia, which has fallen off sharply in the last two years.

Also last week, the general managers of six downtown hotels sent a letter to Hahn threatening to withhold their membership dues until a leadership change takes place at the bureau. Hahn said he intends to push for the bureau to be reorganized, although he has not specifically called for Kirkland’s resignation.

The bureau has been sharply criticized for its failure to stem a tide of convention cancellations and for extravagant spending on trips designed to promote L.A.

Kirkland was out of town last week and could not be reached for comment on either the letter or his status regarding the Asia trade mission. Kirkland went on the city’s last trade mission to Asia with former Mayor Richard Riordan in 1998.

So far, only the bureau’s international marketing chief, Patti MacJennett, is a confirmed delegate representing the LACVB.

Frustration boils over

Threats by Westside businesses to form their own tourism agency have been brewing for years.

“The LACVB has concentrated too heavily on the Staples Center area and downtown,” said Jay Handal, president of the West L.A. Chamber of Commerce. “Even with all that effort, downtown hasn’t revived. Meanwhile, little attention has been paid to the outlying areas. We have tremendous numbers of ballrooms and hotels to fill right here on the Westside that aren’t getting filled.”

Handal hinted that the chamber would seek to have the Westside’s share of hotel bed tax revenues reallocated from the existing LACVB to the new bureau. That share could amount to as much as $3 million annually. The LACVB gets $16 million per year from the tax.

While the chamber could unilaterally spin off a non-profit convention and visitors bureau, getting a reallocation of bed tax dollars would require approval from the L.A. City Council. The bureau, and presumably many of the area’s hotels, would vigorously fight such a move.

While the West L.A. Chamber’s frustration with the LACVB had been building for years, the recent turmoil provided the immediate impetus for the executive board vote.

“It’s clear that they have not fulfilled their mission to bring tourism and convention business to Los Angeles,” Handal said. “Many of our member hotels booked conventions that never happened.”

The motion to split off from the LACVB actually came from Ivor Williams, general manager of the Best Western Westwood Pacific Hotel, who has observed over the years how effective convention and visitors bureaus are in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica.

“There is a disconnect between downtown and the Westside,” he said. “People who go to conventions downtown often cannot or will not go the Westside because there is no viable public transportation. So we need a different focus than downtown.”

LACVB Senior Vice President Michael Collins said the bureau would work with a new Westside entity, should one be set up. But he noted that any redistribution of bed tax dollars would be challenged, calling such a move “unprecedented.”

“For them to go after the transit occupancy tax is a bad idea. It would balkanize the L.A. market,” Collins said. “If every segment of the city decided to do this, it would send a series of separate and often contradictory messages to international and domestic visitors.”

City Councilman Jack Weiss, who serves the Westside, also greeted the bed tax idea with skepticism. “The overall goal is to bring people to Los Angeles,” he said. “From there, they spend money throughout the entire city.”

Without its share of tax dollars, a new West L.A. convention and visitors bureau would have a tough time getting off the ground.

Marketing challenges

In L.A. County, only one CVB does not have access to tax funds: the San Fernando Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau. This bureau, set up in the 1980s, is under the wing of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley. According to Alliance president Bruce Ackerman, the bureau receives $20,000 in membership fees from area hotels and restaurants; the rest comes directly from the much larger Alliance budget.

Ackerman agreed that the LACVB does not do a good job promoting specific communities within the city of L.A. “Their charter is to market the entire city; they have had a difficult time marketing the pieces of Los Angeles,” he said.

Marketing the city is one of the objectives of the Asia trade mission, which has been in the works for several months. A year ago, the task force Hahn convened to deal with the economic impacts of Sept. 11 recommended that trade missions be taken to Asia and Latin America as soon as possible to shore up the region’s image abroad. But with the mayor’s attention diverted to secession and getting a new police chief, the Asia trip took a back seat for much of the year.

As of late last week, three councilmembers were confirmed as delegates: Janice Hahn, the mayor’s sister, Eric Garcetti and Alex Padilla. Also participating will be top management at each of the city’s three proprietary agencies: Los Angeles World Airports, the Department of Water & Power and the Port of Los Angeles.

Private sector participation was still in flux.

Deputy Mayor Matt Middlebrook said the cost of the mission, to begin on Nov. 16, would be slightly less than the $460,000 for former Mayor Richard Riordan’s mission to Asia in 1998. All private sector interests would be paying their own way, according to Middlebrook.

Boosting tourism

In each of the stops, Middlebrook said tourism would be at or near the top of the agenda. Japan and South Korea are among the top markets of origin of overseas international tourists coming to the L.A. area. In the last 18 months, the number of these tourists has plunged due to the economic slowdown and the effects of Sept. 11.

“We are going to be talking to airlines and travel agents and tour operators about increasing tourism,” Middlebrook said. An additional goal of these talks will be to have more of these operators book flights into Ontario International Airport to take pressure off of Los Angeles International Airport, he said.

But the mission will encompass more than boosting tourism. Middlebrook said the delegation would talk with shipping company executives about boosting operations at the Port of Los Angeles and try to get their agreement on a plan to reduce pollution from ships hovering offshore.

There also will be attempts to facilitate import-export deals between private sector companies on both sides of the Pacific that often form the backbone of these trade missions.