Mayor Garcetti signs off on Los Angeles Tourism Cabinet to drive City Master Plan

Eric Garcetti, the mayor of Los Angeles (LA), US has signed his 33rd executive directive, which creates the City of Los Angeles Tourism Cabinet. The group of department mangers is set to support growth in the tourism and hospitality sectors. The executive directive also calls for the implementation of the recommendations laid out in the City’s Tourism Master Plan. Doane Liu, the executive director of the LA City Tourism Department, will chair the tourism cabinet and be responsible for leading the implementation of the Tourism Master Plan. Liu stated: “The Tourism Master Plan is a destination management plan that helps Los Angeles prepare for long-term growth in the number of visitors to the city, and I’m excited that the Tourism Cabinet will work with public, private and community stakeholders to advance the 22 recommendations in the Plan.” Prior to the pandemic, tourism and hospitality experienced 11 consecutive years of growth, ultimately topping mayor Garcetti’s goal of 50m annual visitors two years early. As a result of the pandemic, overall visitation dropped from 50.7m in 2019 to 26.9m in 2020 and approximately 40m in 2021. International travel also dropped from 7.4m in 2019 to under 2m in 2020 and under 3m in 2021. Mayor Garcetti said: “Tourism and hospitality were hit hard over the last two years, and as we continue to safely welcome more people from across the country and world to Los Angeles, we need to make sure Angelenos benefit from that economic growth.”