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LA saw record 44.2 million visitors in 2014, tourism board says
This stock photo shows the iconic Theme Building at Los Angeles International Airport. Visitors to Los Angeles spent $19.6 billion in 2014, up 6.8 percent from the year before, L.A. Tourism and Convention Board said in a report Tuesday.
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Stock photo by Thomas Hawk/flickr Creative Commons
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Los Angeles last year saw more than 44 million visitors, a record number that's nearly a 5-percent jump over the year before, according to the tourism board.
"The 44.2 million visitors makes us one of the top destinations in the world, and the economic impact of having that many people visit the city of Los Angeles is huge," Ernest Wooden Jr. of the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board told KPCC.
Together, those tourists and visitors spent $19.6 billion in 2014, up 6.8 percent from the year before, the board said in a report Tuesday.
"Almost six and a half million of them were international tourists that came into Los Angeles and those people are, if you will, our best customers. They stay longer and they spend more money than domestic visitors," Wooden said.
The nearly $20 billion in spending helped generate $30.2 billion in total economic impact, according to the board. The city's tourism industry helped drive job growth in leisure and hospitality, which employed one in every nine workers in L.A. County last year.
In the report, Wooden said the board hopes to reach its goal of 50 million visitors to L.A. by 2020.
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