Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Mark Liberman, president and CEO of LA INC.
The Los Angeles Tourism Office in Beijing was officially opened in October 2006 by a delegation led by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Mark Liberman, president and CEO of LA INC.
“China is the fastest growing international visitor market to LA and we are working to ensure visitors from China understand how important they are to our great city,” says Liberman. “The entire world has its eyes on China and we are proud to be the first city in the world to establish a permanent tourism office there.”
The office promotes tourism and travel opportunities as part of ongoing efforts to prepare for the projected increase in Chinese citizens traveling to Los Angeles in the coming years.
As home to the second largest Chinese-American community in the United States, Los Angeles can expect to receive a significant number of visiting friends and relatives. It is estimated that 176 million residents of China have the financial means to travel and it is expected that this number will increase by 50 million by 2012.
With 19 weekly nonstop flights from China to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), 360,000 passengers will have the ability to visit LA annually. LAX is the only U.S. airport serviced by all three national Chinese airlines — Air China, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines.
