Group Wants to Pay Way for 2,000 Families to Visit O.C.

An Orange County tourism group wants to fly in 2,000 families from around the nation for an all-expenses-paid five-day tour of the county, with trips to malls, theaters, historic sites and restaurants supplementing standard visitor fare such as Disneyland.

The ambitious plan was outlined Wednesday by former Disneyland President Jack Lindquist, now heading an Orange County Business Council group known as Orange County Class of 2000. He spoke to the second annual conference of the business group’s tourism council.

Lindquist is looking for corporate sponsorships of up to $375,000 for the Class of 2000 group, which plans two years of events beginning in January, including a New Year’s Eve 1999 gala for 25,000 in a Marine Corps megahangar in Tustin. It’s all part of an attempt to promote the county as a destination separate from Los Angeles.

Organizers acknowledge that as admirable as the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana or Laguna Beach art festivals may be, it’s unlikely that visitors from London to Laredo will find them as alluring as, say, the Getty Museum or even the site in Hollywood where Hugh Grant was arrested with a prostitute. The latter is a major draw for Brits.

But they hope significantly more people will make Orange County hotels a base for exploring the region from San Diego to Santa Barbara, and will stay a little longer locally. And they want to spread the word about county attractions from beaches to biking to ballet. Walt Disney Co.’s Anaheim “second gate”-- a California-themed park opening in 2001--should be a big help, they said.

Tourism, the county’s biggest industry, brings in $5.6 billion from 40 million visitors annually--figures the tourist officials would like to double.

E. Scott Reckard covers tourism for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-7407 and at scott.reckard@latimes.com