Van Gogh Show Boosts Hotel Business

The Van Gogh exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has accounted for more than 10,000 overnight stays at area hotels, tourism officials said Friday.

Although the exhibition’s economic impact on hotels won’t be tallied until after its May 16 close, rough estimates place hotel revenue generated by the event at $1.1 million as of early March.

Additionally, about 22,000 rooms have been booked during the remaining eight weeks of the exhibition, said Robert Barrett, director of cultural tourism for the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Last fall, the bureau spent $1.5 million promoting the exhibition in national media, hoping to lure art lovers to Los Angeles for the second and last U.S. stop of the 70-piece display. The convention bureau, which teamed up with eight area hotels for the promotion, hopes the exhibition will ultimately generate 30,000 room nights.

Of the participating hotels, the Regent Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills took in the most Van Gogh-related rooms nights--2,685--despite its rank as one of the county’s most expensive hotels.

“People making the journey from outside the city are obviously willing to spend,” said Bill Doak, the hotel’s director of marketing.