Australia brings high number of visitors to Los Angeles

Australia, 12th January: As per the official figures released by Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau, Los Angeles has witnessed a record number of visitors from Australia in the year 2010.

A total of 25.7 million came to Los Angeles in 2010 and Australians, numbering 339,000, formed the biggest group of overseas visitors registering an increase of 46 percent on the year 2009.

There has been an increase of 8 percent overnight visitors to the Los Angeles in 2010 over the year 2009. And this led to an increased tourist spending (exceeding $8.5 billion) along with $13.1 billion expenditures which went up by 10.4 percent from 2009.

It’s for the first time that Australia left behind Japan and the UK in sending overseas visitors to the LA from 2000 to 2009.

Apart from Australians, there has also been an increase in the number of tourists from South Korea and China visiting the Los Angeles with each registering an increase of 54 percent and 80 percent respectively.

There has also been an increase in the number of domestic travelers to the city which saw an increase of 5 percent in the number of visitors.

According to Antonio Villaraigosa, Mayor of LA (Los Angeles), Tourism happens to be the most lucrative and the largest industry which generates revenue worth billions every year resulting in giving employment to numerous Angelenos.

Mark Liberman, president of Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau, stated that hoteliers, owners of restaurants and theme parks have positive comments about Aussies coming to the city.

A strong rise in number of Australian visitors to LA could be due to strong national currency of Australia. Chief economist of Los Angeles Economic Development Crop. Nancy Sidhu states that tourism in LA reaped in huge benefits due to a significant growth in Australian dollar in the last two years.

Sidhu maintained that international tourism, entertainment and trade happen to be the top economic factors for the region and they are yet to see their optimum levels seen in the year 2007. She, however, stated that despite a slow growth this year, things are going to see a positive development in all the three named industries this year.