Hollywood Magic Infused in LA Tourism’s New Marketing Campaign

Next week, the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board will launch its newest, creative advertising campaign, “Now Playing”, geared toward inspiring visitors to discover the wealth of attractions, entertainment, experiences and unique accommodations that can be found only in L.A.

A 30-second media spot, shot on location at several of the city’s iconic sites combines live-action film, animation, music and the voiceover talents of Jenifer Lewis, an L.A. resident, and veteran of stage and screen who recently received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

During a virtual media briefing held this morning, local tourism officials talked about the innovative upcoming marketing campaign and also commented on the status of the City of Angels’ tourism sector’s post-pandemic recovery.

“Now Playing instantly evokes what’s unique about Los Angeles,” Don Skeoch, Chief Marketing Officer for Los Angeles Tourism, said in a statement. “With this campaign, we’ve combined the vocabulary of the screenwriter and the visual language of cinema to creatively capture what makes L.A. an unparalleled visitor destination.”

The “Now Playing” campaign will be run via traditional and new media channels from September through December as part of a $10 million national ad buy, also appearing in such key international markets as Mexico, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.

“We’re coming off the heels of our successful comeback campaign, which drove an incremental $2 billion in tourism spending, but we felt that now’s the time to communicate a new message,” said Bill Karz Los Angeles Tourism’s Vice President of Brand and Digital Marketing. “We feel that L.A. is back and that we’re rolling out the red carpet to some of the biggest events in the world, from the Superbowl, like Adam mentioned, to the World Cup coming up in ’26 to the Olympics in ’28.”

“The speed with which tourism has come roaring back in Los Angeles, to me, is one of the greatest comeback stories in L.A.’s history,” said Los Angeles Tourism President and CEO Adam Burke. “Remarkably, just looking at this year alone, we are anticipating that we will be at 92 percent of 2019’s record-breaking visitation.” It’s also expected that room demand will have recovered by 95 percent and domestic flight seating capacity will have reached 80 percent of pre-pandemic levels this year.

“We anticipate that next year, we will actually eclipse 2019’s record-setting visitation, we’ll be at about 101 percent, which translates into over 51 million visitors in 2023, and that will generate about $26.6 billion in total business sales to our local economy, which represents about 108 percent record visitation spend.” Burke continued. “You may recall that 2019 capped a decade straight of record-breaking growth that we are so incredibly grateful to visitors from around the country and around the world for very quickly coming back to our City of Angels.”

“2019 was a high watermark. We welcomed 7.4 million international visitors and, while we know that some of the markets will take a little bit longer to recover overseas, one of the advantages we have is that L.A. Tourism remains the only destination that actually has our own full-time team members and offices overseas,” Karz commented. “We have seven international offices and, as a result, they’ve been working with the travel trade and air carriers throughout the pandemic. So, while it’s going to take probably another year or two to see full recovery, we’re actually anticipating over six million international visitors next year, so we’re going to be coming back pretty quickly in the international marketplace.”