A Case Study On Los Angeles Tourism Industry

1. Introduction

1. Introduce the location and outline the main themes to be discussed and analysed in the case study. 

2. Provide analysis of the tourist visitation to your location. Use relevant statistics to support your answer. Make sure you provide the real analysis with supported references please.

3. Explain what makes the destination attractive to tourists. Relate to the tourism system, tourism motivation or satisfaction theories introduced in this unit.

4. Identify and critically analyse the negative and positive impacts of tourism activity on the host community at the location. 

5. Identify and critically discuss four (4) policy implications to achieve sustainable tourism outcomes for the destination.
 

Tourism is one of the major industries in Los Angeles due to its job growth and economic impact. In recent days, Los Angeles has been experiencing a rapid growth in the tourism department(Riley 2014). Moreover, the local government has been contributing sufficient support enhance the tourism industry in Los Angeles. However, inrecent report, it has been published that several political issues including visa restrictions, tax breaks for the hotel industry and the Transient Occupancy Tax on tourists, have surrounded the tourism industry of Los Angeles (Byrne 2012). Tourism is one of the important industries that facilitates in enhancing economic growth of the country. In this context, the researcher has evaluated the importance of tourism industry in Los Angeles. Moreover, the researcher explores the prime attraction of the destination including J Paul Getty Museum, Griffin Park and Observatory, Music Center, Los Angeles County Museum of Art,etc (Goodall &Ashworth 2013).

The tourist’s visits in Los Angeles have been growing rapidly. In recent years, the industry has experienced robust growth in the tourism industry. Eric Garcetti, the Mayor of the City, has announced that Los Angeles has theworld record for welcoming 45.5 million visitors in 2015Moreover, tourism and convention board president and CEO of Los Angeles have declared that the city has experienced a growth of 2.8% of tourists in 2015. It has been reported that total domestic visitation has already reached to 38.8 million. On the other hand, the international visitors have reached the number of 6.7 million. Moreover, the international visitors have facilitated to increase 3.3% of visitation (Riley 2014). 

Visitors	Tourist Visitation (million)
International	38.8
Domestic	6.7

Figure 1: Tourist Visitation

The local government has stated that the popularity of the city has been increasingly popular due to its cultural experiences. Eric Garcetti, the mayor of the city, has expressed that Los Angeles is the place where the cultural experiences and celebrated attraction are met(Ziegler et al 2012). On the other hand, the mayor has said that the development of the city attracts a huge number of international and domestic tourists to enjoy the scenic beauty of the place. For example, the government has invested billionsin renovating the airport to improve the mass transits and other assets of international visitors(Cabidduet al 2013).

2. Tourism Visitation

In recent years, most international tourists of Los Angeles are Chinese. Hence, it can be assessed that China is one of the biggest contributors for the enhancement of tourism industry at Los Angeles (Apostolopouloset al 2013). International visitation of China has increased to 13.6% and officially, it becomes L.A’s 2^nd international market behind Mexico with 779,000 visitors in 2015 on the other hand, South Korea is also growing, as 11% increments of tourists have been observed in 2015 and the city has welcomed 282,000 visitors from Mexico(Wallace et al 2014). The city has recognized and congratulated millions of tourists, as their passion and dedication suggest providing enhanced services to all international and domestic tourists. Consequently, Continuous supports of local organizations have facilitated to provide enhanced services to tourists (Hall et al 2012). For example, Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Boardarenon-profit and private association whose main mission is to enhance the popularity of the city through effective promotion and marketing(Morrison and Pickering 2013).

Los Angeles in Southern Californiais one of the famous cities in the United States. The city is known internationally for its scenic beauty and culture. Hollywood industry contributes to enhancing its popularity in an effective manner. The warm climate and beaches attract the international and domestictourists for enjoying the city and most of the international tourists. It has said that the beaches of Los Angeles are one of the major factors for selecting this particular destination(Kavoura&Stavrianea 2014). For example, nearby Venice Beach offers a warm beaching experience like none other. Los Angeles also hasacultural attraction that is the selling point of this destination. Traditional culture including J Paul Getty Museum has attracted many international tourists to select this particular destination(Lacher&Oh 2012). Moreover, Le Brea Tar Pits is one of the spectacular place of Los Angeles, as it reveals fossils from 10,000 to 40,000 years ago(Wallace et al 2014). The diverse mix of several things makes LA as a perfect gateway for anyone at any point of time. 

The MayorEric Garcettihas explained that they motivate the international and domestic tourists for having the experiences of the city. Moreover, there aresome organizations, whichsupport tourists by providing knowledge on the tourist destinations in Los Angeles. For example, Los Angeles tourism and convention board, a nonprofit organization has been providing enhanced services to the international tourists(Sigala 2012). The tourism industry has been developing the infrastructure of the city for attracting a huge number of tourists across the globe (Yu&Ko 2012).

3. Destination attractiveness

Although the tourism industry Los Angeles has been experiencing tremendous growth in recent years, there are some challenges affecting the industry. It has been seen that thepolitical issues have surrounded the tourism industry here(Sigalaet al 2012). Consequently, the industry has been confronting challenges in providing enhanced services to the tourists across the global platform. The political issues including visa restrictions, tax breaks for the hotel industry, and the impact of Transient Occupancy Tax on tourists. The local government believes that the tourism industry has been providing amajor contribution to strengtheningcountry’s economic structure.However, strict immigration and visa rule are the major challenges for the tourists in Los Angeles (Ruhanen&Shakeela 2013). Although the foreign tourists consider Los Angeles as a city of joy and wealth of culture, they may find difficulties inobtaining avisa within ashort period. Moreover, it may take long time and cost too much for acquiring a visa of Los Angeles(Han &Hyun 2015). However, in 2011, the US travel association has requested the government to simplify the process of visa in order to enhance the tourism industry in an effective manner and the government has initiated Visa Waiver Program for improvising the process of visa. As per the Visa Waiver Program, the citizens of the specific country get theopportunity to travel in the US withouthaving to obtain avisa(Csapó 2012). However, the travel must be less than 90 days. The United States is very cautious about providing avisa to international visitors.

Tax breaks for hotels is another issue of the travel industry in Los Angeles. Many companies have stated that they need financial contribution from the governmentin order to develop large attractive hotels in the city whereas, the city council has been attempting to be more selective for the selection of hotels for tourists and they have been trying to identify which hotel receives the city subsidies by deciphering how beneficial each hotel would be in attracting visitors and job creation(Jayawardena et al 2013). Creating new hotels is one of the important initiatives for providing enhanced facilities to international and domestic tourists. These new hotels contain extra 4000 rooms for the tourists so that it can be an attractive conference destination (Ruhanen&Shakeela 2013).Small hotels and organizations have been developing their internal structure to attract a huge number of tourists across the global platform.  Transient Occupancy Tax is another issue for international tourists (Briassoulis&Van der Straaten 2013). However, tourists have said that the government should have minimized the transient occupancy tax in order to enhance the tourist engagement in an effective manner but this particular tax is beneficial for the state government, as in 2012 Los Angeles has paid $354.7 million (Wallace et al 2014). Therefore, it is an added constraint on accommodation business in the city. Strict immigration and visa rules are also economic challenges for the government. It has been reported that barrier to easy travel has kept out 78 million foreign tourists from 2000 to 2010(Liu et al 2012). Therefore, it has indicated a risk factor for the tourism industry in Los Angeles.Moreover, it has directly affected on the economic structure of the country because it has been noticed that due to loss of 78 million tourists, the tourism industry has lost $859 billion, which could have pumped up the U.S economy and added 1.3 million jobs(Ruhanen&Shakeela 2013). The business report said that Mexico, Canada, China, Australia, and the United Kingdom were top five tourists producing markets (Wallace et al 2014). Moreover, the travel price index is quite unstable, it depends on the seasonsand the beverage and lodging cost has increased in recent days due to thehigh tax rate. The international and domestic tourists face difficulties for finding appropriate accommodation due to the huge cost(Csapó 2012). 

Tourist Loss	Duration	Economy loss
78 million	2000- 2010	$859 billion

4. Issue analysis

Figure 2: Economy loss during 2000 to 2010

Figure 3: Top five tourists producing markets

Positive Impact of tourism activity:

The recent growth in the tourism industry has shown the potentiality of the industry to obtain remarkable profit out of the business. By analyzing the growth of the tourism industry, it can be assessed that Los Angeles has been achieving a huge growth in the industry and consequently, it directly influences the economy of the country (Lacher& Oh 2012). In this context, some of the positive impacts have been shown in the following points.

Economic Benefits:

Economic diversification is one of the major outcomes of the tourism activities. Tourism is responsible for creating new opportunities for the society to enhance the economic benefits in an effective manner. Through the engagement of employing new hotels and lodges, the tourism industry increases profits. Moreover, it is responsible for creating direct and indirect employment in the business (Sigala 2012). Infrastructure development is one of the important outcomes of the tourism activities. The local development like anairport, roads, schools, hospitals and retails provide adequate facilities to the local communities. In this context, the mayor of Los Angles has said that the government has spent billions to enhance the infrastructure of theairport do that the mass transits and other valuable products transits can be executed in an effective manner(Lacher&Oh 2012).As of 2011, Los Angeles has economy around $827 billion and the businesses of the particular city have contributed 35% of total GDP (Wallace et al 2014). The commerce activates contributed the second amount to the GDP with 27%. These are the most prominent character of Los Angeles economy. Hence, it suggests that the tourism activity has facilitated the economy of the country and it has been contributing to strengthening the economic structure of the country. 

Social Benefits:

Social benefit is another positive outcome of the tourism industry. In Los Angeles, thetourist industry has enhanced the social life though the enormous financial contribution and it has facilitated to create a huge employment opportunity in Los Angeles (Yu &Ko 2012). The increments of hotels and lodges have created several job opportunities for the local communities. Through the engagement of employing tourism activities, the city successfully promotes its culture to the global platform(Csapó 2012).

Environmental Benefits:

Tourism industry provides financial support to the conservation of natural resources management and conservation of ecosystems. Moreover, it facilitates Los Angeles to make the destination more authentic and desirable for domestic and international tourists across the global platform. Furthermore, it would increase the value of local tourism in Los Angeles (Sigalaet al 2012).

5. Policy Implications for Sustainable Tourism

Negative activity of tourism activity:

Besides the enormous positive impacts, there are some drawbacks of tourism activities. Exceeding environmental capacity can be a risk factor for the local communities as the resources including energy, food, and water may be at risk(Han &Hyun 2015). On the other hand, increasing tourism activity can cause the environmental contamination. Sometimes, a huge number of tourists may be responsible for water and soil pollutions and discharging of wastes is a major factor for environmental pollutionas theMayor Eric Garcetti has said that the local government has spent billions on enhancing the tourism infrastructure to attract a huge number of tourists in Los Angeles. However, this money could have been utilized for contributing the local community to enhance their lifestyle in an effective manner(Ruhanen&Shakeela 2013).

Sometimes, enhanced tourism activities can be responsible for implementing a new foreign culture in the host communities. Hence, it indicates the risk factors for the local community toretain the traditional culture in the society in an effective manner. Moreover, increasing tourism activities indicates athreat for thehistorical and religious heritage of the local community (Csapó 2012).

Environmental destruction is one of the major issues of tourism activities in Los Angeles (Sigalaet al 2012). With the involvement of the welcoming a huge number of tourists, Los Angeles indeed create difficulties for the local community as they may be suffered due the shrinkage of local services. Moreover, the healthcare services need to be expanded for providing enhanced services to the tourists (Apostolopoulos, Leivadi &Yiannakis 2013). Hence, the local government needs to invest on the health care systemto uphold the same services in the society.

Tourism planning:

Tourism planning is one of the major factors that provide sustainable growth in the industry. Regional development plans areresponsible for strengthening the economic structure of the country and sustainable tourism planning needs to be incorporated in the regional and national development (Han &Hyun 2015). Stakeholder’s engagement, governance mechanism, and public policies should be incorporated into the planning method for national and regional development. Hence, the planners should recognize and utilize the legal and fiscal regimes, knowledge, information, evaluation tools and cooperative processes among professional and civil society. In this process, NGOs, local authorities, enterprises, and community-based organizations facilitate to obtain sustainable tourism (Jayawardena et al 2013).

Tourism investment:

The financial investment allows the tourism industry to enhance its infrastructure in an effective manner. On the other hand, regulatory instruments with integrated social and environmental criteria should be implemented in different processes including licensing, tendering, and permit approval process. Moreover, these instruments also facilitate application and tools including Strategic Environmental influence in Los Angeles (Briassoulis&Van der Straaten 2013).

Tourism promotion and marketing:

Marketing strategies promote the idea and need for sustainability. Different promotion and distribution channels should focus on sustainability as the main option for tourism development and persuade tourist’s choice in an effective method. Nowadays, social media engagement is one of the major platforms for the effective promotion. Therefore, the tourism industry can incorporate their promotional activities in the social media platform for expanding the information of particular tourism services across the global platform (Ruhanen&Shakeela 2013).

Tourism operations and management:

Tourism operations need to respect the planned objectives and legislative for managing sustainability development in the industry. Tourism objective must be related with tourism development and management. Moreover, the operations should be internationally recognized standard for sustainable development. Tourism development authority needs to educate, inform, and work collaboratively in order to incorporate sustainability into the management practices and policies (Kavoura&Stavrianea 2014). 

References:

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Briassoulis, H &Van der Straaten, J, 2013. Tourism and the environment: regional, economic, cultural and policy issues (Vol. 6). Springer Science & Business Media. Pp. 200-605

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Csapó, J, 2012, ‘The role and importance of cultural tourism in modern tourism industry’, INTECH Open Access Publisher, 21^st April, p.48.

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Morrison, C. & Pickering, C.M, 2013, ‘Perceptions of climate change impacts, adaptation and limits to adaption in the Australian Alps: the ski-tourism industry and key stakeholders’,  Journal of Sustainable Tourism, vol.21(2), pp.173-191.