Valley Pushes for Tourism Money

The L.A. City Council is expected to consider a motion in September to keep funds gathered through the city’s tax on hotel beds in the Valley and direct them to the San Fernando Valley Conference and Visitors Bureau. The fee is charged to hotel guests and helps fund LA Inc., the city’s tourism and convention bureau. The agency, based in downtown L.A., received $7.7 million from the city in 2004-2005, 17 percent of which came through the Valley’s bed taxes, according to the office of City Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, who introduced the motion. Greuel, whose Second District stretches from Van Nuys to Sunland, thinks LA Inc. isn’t representing the Valley as much as other areas of the city. She thinks the Valley is overlooked compared to Hollywood and downtown, even though Universal Studios Hollywood and dozens of Valley hotels help drive the city’s tourism industry. “There are a lot of other ways the convention and visitors bureau supports (other) areas of the city,” she said. “There has not been as much focus on the San Fernando Valley.” She pointed to the high occupancy rate for rooms in the San Fernando Valley, which in June came in at 83.9 percent, ahead of Hollywood, Santa Monica, the South Bay and downtown, according to the hotel tracking firm PKF Consulting. “My intent is to continue to remind people that the San Fernando Valley is part of the city. We need to market it,” she said. Under the terms of her motion, the Valley’s portions of the hotel bed tax would be redirected to the Valley Conference and Visitors Bureau, which would then market the area independently of downtown, Hollywood, South Bay and West Side. The Valley organization has been operated since 1997 by the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley and runs a website, manages events and organizes promotions, all with a budget of just $80,000. Economic Alliance President and CEO Bruce Ackerman said the organization has lots of plans but doesn’t have the money to implement it. “It’s a matter of funding,” said Ackerman. He would like to use the money to implement more programs to reach out-of-towners and educate visitors about what the Valley has to offer. Ackerman said he would also like to add more staff to the organization, which he has managed since David Iwata stepped down in April. In the end, he thinks the Valley bureau is in a much better place to market the Valley instead of letting LA Inc. handle it. “We have a better feel for what we need here,” he said. Plus, it’s the Valley’s money to start with, he said. “We’re not asking for money that is allocated anywhere else,” he said. That type of thinking is one reason LA Inc. thinks the City Council will be less than thrilled to pass Greuel’s motion: It would open the possibility that every region in the city could have its own, independent tourism bureau. “It sets a dangerous precedent,” said Chris Heywood, a spokesman for LA Inc. Heywood noted that LA Inc. has been working with the Economic Alliance to make sure the Valley is represented as strongly as other areas of the region. The two groups came together to work on a 24-page magazine highlighting the Valley set for release in September and LA Inc. has increased its promotions of the Valley, especially Ventura Boulevard, added more Valley-specific staff and expanded marketing efforts. This summer, the group hosted a phone blitz to market area hotels to national conventioneers. He said the Greuel motion would stifle all of that work and hurt the momentum LA Inc. has built in other areas of the city. “If you did it for the Valley, you’d probably have to do it for West L.A., San Pedro, Hollywood,” he said. “That would compromise the city’s ability to promote itself.”