U.S. Offers L.A. $3 Million to Lure Visitors : Quake recovery: Commerce Secretary Brown says tourism can be an engine of economic growth for the region.

As the Southern California’s tourism industry remained sluggish, the federal government on Thursday pledged $3 million to help mount a television advertising campaign aimed at attracting visitors to the area in the summer after the Northridge earthquake.

But the quake relief grant, announced by U.S. Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown during a hearing on federal help for California tourism, was less than was originally requested and met with some opposition from a hotel union. The California Tourism Summit saw a wide range of groups--from San Diego convention boosters to Los Angeles arts groups--suggest ways the federal government could help the state’s tourist industry, which generates an estimated $54 billion in annual revenues.

“What we need to stimulate California tourism today is money,” Julie Meier Wright, secretary of the California Department of Commerce, told members of the Travel and Tourism Advisory Board, which advises the Commerce Department on travel issues. “Our problem in California is a lack of resources.”

Visitor spending in the Los Angeles area is expected to decline by $308 million this year as a result of the January quake, according to a recent study commissioned by the Los Angeles Convention & Visitors Bureau. Some hotels and attractions report that advance summer bookings are sluggish, according to bureau officials.

The quake “rattled our most important industry--tourism,” Mayor Richard Riordan said. The grant “will help us market Los Angeles as a travel destination this summer.”

The state itself has asked the federal government for $15 million in aid to help promote California tourism. U.S. Commerce Department officials said the state’s request is still under consideration.

“This Administration believes that tourism can be a successful tool, an engine, for economic growth,” said Brown, whose father was a manager of a New York hotel.

But Brown did not indicate that any more federal financial aid was readily available to help the state’s tourist industry. Although some who spoke at the hearing sought non-monetary help to promote the domestic cruise industry and increase customs facilities, most asked for cash.

“The first thing that people ask for is money,” said Darryl Hartley-Leonard, chairman of the Travel Advisory Board, which organized Thursday’s hearing. “But trying to get more dollars today, given the Administration’s determination to cut the deficit, is difficult.”

The $3-million federal grant, which must still receive final authorization from Congress and is contingent on $2 million in local matching funds, will be used by the Los Angeles Convention & Visitors Bureau to launch a $5-million ad campaign. The bureau agreed to provide $1 million of its own money and raise another $1 million from the private sector to win the federal grant, said spokesman Gary C. Sherwin.

The promotion is scheduled to begin May 23 with 30- and 60-second commercials in 10 cities in the Western United States--such as Reno and Dallas--that are major sources of Los Angeles-bound tourists. The promotions rank as one of the largest sponsored by the bureau and its first campaign aimed directly at travelers in recent years.

The federal grant was criticized by members of the Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Union, who claim the industry exploits workers with low pay and meager benefits.

“The government is contributing to the very cause of social problems that give the city a bad image,” said local union president Maria Elena Durazo, after a brief and impromptu meeting with Brown in a convention center hallway.

Tourist officials conceded that they must also deal with social problems--such as violence and poverty--that hurt their industry.

“Today’s grant is like a Band-Aid for the real problems of the state of California and the nation,” said Hartley-Leonard. “Until we address the issues, we are going to have a perception problem and a reality problem.”