Before the pandemic, the Original Farmers Market in Los Angeles welcomed a regular stream of buses filled with tourists from countries like Brazil, China, and Australia. These buses would typically stop for an hour or so, allowing their passengers to enjoy the food stalls and souvenir shops at the market. However, the number of international travelers has declined significantly since then.
Adam Burke, the president and CEO of the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board, is working to reverse this trend. While Los Angeles has seen a recovery in domestic tourism, the number of international visitors remains below pre-pandemic levels. Burke emphasized the importance of international visitors, noting that they tend to stay longer and spend more, contributing significantly to the city's tourism industry, which generated nearly $22 billion in 2022 and employs over 530,000 people.
To attract more international visitors, local officials and tourism industry representatives are promoting attractions like the farmers market at an annual conference in L.A. While domestic tourism has rebounded, with visitation returning to pre-pandemic levels, international visitation remains lower, with only 5.8 million international visitors in 2023, representing about three-quarters of the 2019 total.
The slowdown in international tourism is a national trend, driven in part by challenges in travel from China and other Asian countries. Despite a 14% increase in flights at LAX in 2023, total traffic was still 15% below 2019 levels, largely due to factors like strained U.S.-China relations and restrictions on flight routes.
Addressing these challenges, Burke and others are urging the White House to ease travel restrictions, address visa backlogs, and increase flight volumes. They hope that major events like the World Cup in 2026 and the Summer Olympics in 2028 will attract more international visitors, though concerns remain about potential complications like labor disputes at local hotels.
Despite these challenges, longtime businesses like Bennett's Ice Cream at the Farmers Market remain resilient, adapting to changing circumstances. Bennett's Ice Cream, for example, shifted to selling hand-scooped pints for takeout during the lockdowns and has since seen a return to normal operations, with Bennett looking forward to serving ice cream to a diverse clientele, including more foreign tourists, who are seen as a valuable part of the tourism industry.