Visitors Bureaus Put Valley Attractions on Map

When visitors head to Los Angeles for a holiday, the San Fernando Valley usually doesn’t rate high on their lists of places to hang out--or maybe even rate at all.

Sure, hordes take in Universal Studios, and some even stay nearby. But although the studio theme park and adjoining CityWalk are in the Valley, they don’t have much of a Valley identity--nor do they feed many tourists to other attractions nearby.

David Iwata wants to change that. Iwata, president of the Valley Conference & Visitors Bureau, says tourists would be willing to spend more time--and money--in the Valley, if they had a better idea of what was here.

“We get calls from travel agents looking for information all the time,” he said.

Iwata wants to help them out by pointing travel agents and tourists to such overlooked Valley attractions as the historic San Fernando Mission, the Travel Town railroad museum in Griffith Park (it’s on the Valley side) and the Leonis Adobe Museum in Calabasas.

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Iwata concedes he doesn’t have a lot of resources to drive the effort. With only a $100,000 annual budget (funded by hotels, the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley and others), the Valley Conference & Visitors Bureau limits most of its activity to taking out ads in tourism trade publications.

Although Iwata says he has yet to implement a plan to promote the Valley’s lesser-known attractions, travel and tourism experts generally praised the concept. But they’re realistic about what’s possible, given fierce competition for tourist attention.

“Until there’s financial muscle behind the effort, it’s going to be very difficult to generate any real results,” says Steven Lew, a consultant to Universal Studios and immediate past chairman of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn.

Still, Iwata and others see great potential. The San Fernando Mission, for example, attracts only about 30,000 visitors a year--compared with the estimated half-million who annually take in the majestic Mission Santa Barbara to the north.

Curator Kevin Feeney said the mission welcomes more visitors, but stressed that it’s a church, conducting masses and funerals, not a tourist facility.

“We don’t do anything to draw attention to ourselves,” he says.

Travel Town, with its collection of vintage trains and locomotives, has built-in appeal to train buffs.

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But many out-of-town enthusiasts may not be aware that it’s only a few miles from Universal Studios and the Los Angeles Zoo. Some, in fact, stumble on Travel Town by accident.

“We get a lot of lost tourists,” says operation manager David Alonso, who said Travel Town draws about 300,000 visitors annually without any marketing.

Calabasas’ Leonis Adobe Museum attracts 40 to 60 visitors, max, on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, but it would love more.

“We’re the best-kept secret in the city of Los Angeles,” declares curator Phyllis Power. “We are the only place in the city where the schoolchildren can experience a hands-on day in the life of a ranch, 1880.”

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Drawing more tourists to the Valley could benefit local merchants, especially innkeepers.

According to the estimates of PKF Consulting, Valley hotels contributed about $15 million to the 1999 local transient occupancy tax, which helps fund the Los Angeles Convention & Visitors Bureau.

James Dunn, president of the Airtel Plaza Hotel and Conference Center in Van Nuys, said the Los Angeles bureau hasn’t done enough to promote Valley tourism.

Bureau spokeswoman Carol Martinez said the bureau has responded to the criticism, and the bureau-produced Visitors Guide now has a San Fernando Valley section touting the Valley as a place to see the real Hollywood.

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In addition to the well-known Universal Studios tour, there are tours at Burbank-based NBC and Warner Bros.

Martinez said the bureau publicity staff routinely makes special efforts to alert journalists to Valley-related sites and topics. In addition, the agency intends to assign a salesperson to sell rooms in Valley hotels exclusively. That person will work with an advisory group made up of Valley hotel execs.

In a statement, Visitors Bureau Senior Vice President Michael Collins conceded “there is indeed more that can be done” to promote the Valley, although he thinks the bureau is doing its part.

Terry Alder, general manager of the Warner Center Marriott in Woodland Hills, for one, is pleased with the progress.

“The Los Angeles Convention & Visitors Bureau has heard the message and is directing their attention earnestly to the Valley,” he said.