PERSPECTIVE ON TOURISM : Sell L.A. in All Its Tastes and Colors : Put our ethnic neighborhoods in the picture, literally and economically.
Shortly after the 1992 civil unrest, a group of Community Scholars at UCLA released a wide-ranging analysis of Los Angeles’ vital tourism industry. The report, titled “Accidental Tourism,” concluded: “As with the devastated neighborhoods of the city, tourism must not be simply restored, but must be built in a new way.”
Has this happened? Unfortunately, no. When it comes to tourism, Los Angeles is still held hostage to a vision that is economically dangerous and racist.
The Greater Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau, a private, nonprofit agency funded by $6 million in city hotel tax revenues, promotes Los Angeles to the outside world with a map that would leave most residents wondering where they live. “Like a colorful mosaic,” the bureau’s publication, “Destination Los Angeles,” states, “the city’s landscape is an intricately designed panorama comprising five regions or neighborhoods, each with its own character: Downtown--a sophisticated urban center; Hollywood--the world’s entertainment capital; Westside--neighborhoods of the rich and famous; Coastal--beachside pleasures and spectacular views; The Valleys--myriad suburban recreational pursuits.”
South and South-Central Los Angeles, East Los Angeles, Pico-Union, Koreatown and virtually all working-class and/or ethnic neighborhoods--the neighborhoods in which so many of the area’s tourism workers actually live--are banished from the official tourism promotion of our city.
Where on this map are the powerful murals of East Los Angeles? The hip cafes and shops of Leimert Park? The “recreational pursuits” (and incomparable views) from the top of Baldwin Hills, or the festive Sundays in Lincoln Park? The opportunity to visit a bit of Korea just a few blocks off the Santa Monica Freeway? The wonderful Mexican, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Salvadoran and other restaurants that are the favorites of Angelenos from all backgrounds? Like so much else, they neither register on nor benefit from a tourism policy that shunts visitors and their wallets to some communities while deepening the economic dependency and stoking the flames of discontent in others.
With millions of public dollars invested in a tourism policy based on this elitist vision of Los Angeles, it is no surprise that the official tourism promoters lapse into defensiveness and near-hysteria when contrary images surface. Recall the panic over the Police Protective League’s bargaining-tactic threat to distribute a video that sounded like “Falling Down” and “Blade Runner” rolled into one.
Is there an alternative for promoting the real Los Angeles? Of course. Building on other cities’ experience, Los Angeles can create a new model of tourism as a vehicle for real economic development. Here are the necessary ingredients:
* A community-based approach. Incorporate into the $8-billion tourism economy the businesses and residents of communities historically excluded. It can be done. New York, for example, channels its hotel tax dollars to community organizations in all five boroughs of the city. Philadelphia has a very effective and well-funded program to promote its African American history and neighborhoods. New Orleans’ Black Tourism Network, a highly successful program, is funded by the city’s hotel tax.
* A sea-change in the attitude of major employers in tourism toward the unionization of their service workers. San Francisco and Hawaii, vacation and convention destinations of consistent strength, have a much higher degree of unionization in their tourism-oriented hotels than Los Angeles. The result: a work force bolstered by medical insurance and other benefits, taking home, on average, wages 50% higher than ours. This means more earned dollars circulating in poor communities, nurturing small business.
* A comprehensive policy that links these elements with the tourism and convention infrastructure. The Tourism Industry Development Council, a nonprofit entity, was formed just for this purpose. By joining community, labor and business resources, we can make tourism an engine of economic development for the whole city.
A tourism policy that showcases rather than denies the complex vitality of our city must be the basis on which this critical sector of our economy is built. When business flourishes, when all of our communities share in the benefits of tourism, and when the interests of workers throughout the industry are represented by unions, no video, no matter what it may show, will stand a chance against reality.
