Not only do downtown L.A. hotels have to jostle with Las Vegas and Orlando for convention business, now they have to compete with their own neighbors: hotels in the San Fernando Valley.

LA Inc., the convention and visitors bureau, has begun marketing the Valley as a location for small conventions and meetings, said Chris Heywood, a marketing manager for LA Inc. The Valley may be ideal for a group that doesn’t need an immense convention facility and doesn’t mind escaping the congestion of downtown or around Los Angeles International airport.

As a result of the marketing push, more than 6,000 people who sell Tahitian Noni fruits met at Universal Studios in March. They filled 10,000 room nights in 11 hotels in the Valley. Some stayed as far away as Woodland Hills, taking shuttle buses or the Orange Line to meetings.

“Now that we have this success story, we can use this as leverage to get future business,” Heywood said. “The Valley has the potential to accommodate larger groups than it has in the past, and we’re making it a priority to sell this part of the city to larger groups.”

How do hotels in the non-Valley parts of the city feel about this?

“I think it’s good that LA Inc. is marketing the Valley,” said Peter Zen, president of FIT Investment Corp., which is an owner of the Westin Bonaventure hotel.

He said that when Valley hotels are doing a brisk business, it means more business gravitates to downtown and the rest of the L.A. area.