COMPANY TOWN : A Black Tie, Bermuda Shorts Affair : To lure visitors, L.A. officials have begun a campaign to sell star-studded awards shows such as Emmys as tourist attractions.

It makes sense that a town that uses the homes and handprints of TV and movie stars as tourist attractions would eventually adopt celebrities themselves as a travel industry commodity.

The Los Angeles Sports & Entertainment Commission is using a captive audience of television’s biggest stars as a calling card for tourists in a $150,000 campaign offering travel packages and tickets to the 51st Emmy Awards ceremony Sunday at the Shrine Auditorium.

The effort marks the first time Los Angeles tourism officials have tried to harness the glitz and glitter of a big awards show as a marketing tool.

So far, at least 600 people, paying anywhere from $300 to $500 per package, have responded, commission President Kathy Schloessman said. About half are locals, with the rest traveling from Northern California, San Diego and as far away as the East Coast for the occasion. The package includes a walk down the auditorium’s red-carpet entrance, balcony seating and admission to a post-show party studded with young TV stars.

Although the commission might ultimately be stuck with hundreds of unpurchased tickets and could lose as much as $50,000 on the campaign, discussion is already underway to put together similar packages for other events such as the Grammys and the American Music Awards. As they say in show business, any publicity is good publicity, and the primary purpose of the campaign is to generate exposure for L.A., Schloessman said.

But Hollywood’s biggest event, the Academy Awards, probably won’t play the part of tourist booster any time soon, Schloessman said. Demand for tickets to the Oscars is too high among academy members and Hollywood insiders, she said, to leave any for the public.

Still, with its near-guaranteed sightings of Calista Flockhart, Dennis Franz, Dylan McDermott and other TV glitterati, this year’s Emmy Awards program is likely to turn in a convincing performance as travel industry poster child.

Lisa Delpy, professor of sport management and tourism studies at George Washington University in Washington, said the campaign’s allure centers on its promise to place ordinary folk in the thick of an event brimming with importance to popular culture.

“It’s going to be a very who’s-who crowd there,” Delpy said. “People want to go to be seen. They’re trying to be associated with celebrities. They can go home and say they’ve been to the Emmys.”

“Commodification” is something actors have had to deal with for decades. Likenesses of actors appear in or on everything from action figures and T-shirts to pillowcases and fast-food bags. But with the Emmys, its their proximity that’s for sale.

The impetus for the “Fantasy Night Emmy Experience” package came last year when the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences moved the awards show from the 3,000-seat Pasadena Civic Auditorium to the Shrine, which can accommodate 6,000.

Academy officials said in a statement that the move gave them more capacity than they needed and that, as a result, they decided to open ticket sales to the public.

However, public sales for last year’s show reportedly were weak, given the scant publicity efforts.

Schloessman said she approached academy officials earlier this year with an offer to boost sales by buying all 1,000 tickets set aside for the public at $100 apiece and wrapping them into a tourist package. The Sports & Entertainment Commission is an arm of the Los Angeles Convention & Visitors Bureau.

At the end of July, the organization launched a $50,000 ad campaign for the Emmy packages, mostly in in-state newspapers. Word of the promotion spread, and write-ups in the national press sparked orders from Pensacola, Fla., to Portage, Mich.

The $500 price does not cover air fare but does include admission to the Emmys and the post-party, a two-night stay at one of three downtown hotels and a ticket to the Dodgers-New York Mets game Saturday. Local packages that include everything but the game and accommodations go for $300 a person. About 60% of the tickets had sold by Thursday afternoon.

Schloessman hopes an earlier launch on a retooled ad campaign targeting select cities across the country will yield better results next year.

Still, Lisa Temple, sales and marketing director for the Hyatt Regency Los Angeles, said her hotel is happy with the 50 Emmy packages it sold as a participating member of the campaign. She said Hyatt officials saw the effort as a chance to link the hotel with a high-profile event in the minds of consumers. Hyatts across the country even helped generate interest, she said, by pitching the package to preferred customers.

“It’s an excellent opportunity to gain exposure with the Shrine and the Emmys,” Temple said.

A desire to broaden exposure has also prompted Dallas-based Blockbuster Inc. to consider working with the Sports & Entertainment Commission on a similar package for its Blockbuster Entertainment Awards ceremony next spring.

“We’re always looking for partnerships we might be able to establish to increase exposure for the show,” Blockbuster spokeswoman Liz Greene said. “This is one avenue we’re looking at.”

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Coming Attractions

Los Angeles is using its television stars to boost tourism, spending $150,000 to attract visitors with tickets to the Emmy Awards ceremony Sunday.

Who’s on View

Some of this year’s nominees for the television industry’s top award:

Calista Flockhart of “Ally McBeal”

Helen Hunt of “Mad About You”

James Gandolfini of “The Sopranos”

Dennis Franz of “NYPD Blue”