The Los Angeles Department of Convention and Tourism Development plans to make $250,000 available for whichever consultant wins the prize with a five-year plan to address “current and upcoming challenges” to the local tourism trade – a crucial sector of the local economy.

The challenges include “traffic gridlock, the need for sustainable growth, the need for more hotels near the downtown convention center and the persistent homeless population near tourism sites,” according to a story tucked inside the business section of the L.A. Times of July 17 under a headline of “L.A. will hire consultant to hit tourism goal.”

Let’s start with the “goal” – Mayor Eric Garcetti’s call earlier this year to reach 50 million tourists to the city by 2020.

Tourists are tracked by the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board, which reported a 2 percent increase to 48.3 million visitors in 2017.

Apply that rate to this year and next and you’ll get to 50 million by 2020.

Garcetti got a lot of mileage on a target that’s hardly a stretch under current conditions.

Now consider the $250,000 allotted for a consultant who not only answers the city’s fantastic wish list but also shows sensitivity to “the crisis at hand” on homelessness.

Let’s get this straight:

The mayor has set a goal of maintaining the pace of recent modest gains in tourism.

The outfit that tracks tourism numbers – the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board – is a “private, non-profit business association” with “more than 1,100 member businesses from the area’s hospitality community and is responsible for sales and marketing efforts focused on the meetings & convention industry, domestic and international leisure travelers, travel trade and media worldwide.”

The Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board is hired by the Los Angeles Department of Convention and Tourism Development – the same outfit seeking the consultant. The city department is made up of five mayoral appointees, and it also hires out the job of managing the city-owned Los Angeles Convention Center to AEG Facilities.

Get all of that?

It seems to us that there’s plenty of talent available to work on the needs of the tourism trade. There appears to be no shortage of presumably qualified hired hands on the city’s payroll, not to mention a facilities manager of global renown, and plenty of involvement of industry professionals.

That gets fogged over a bit when homelessness is inserted into our tourism marketing strategy – something that slipped into the mix even as thinking folks wonder what’s going on with all of the money that’s been provided to address that challenge, thanks to voters throughout the city and county who have assessed themselves billions of dollars over a decade.

And all of this in a world with consultants capable of devising plans to fix traffic, get more hotels built downtown, and make sure tourists never see homeless individuals.

All those answers for $250,000?

Perhaps it’s time to hire the consultant, let the industry pros do their jobs, and trim city staff.