MAYOR'S ASIA TRIP LAID VITAL GROUNDWORK BENEFITS TO BE FELT THROUGHOUT THE CITY DUE TO HAHN'S LEADERSHIP, FORESIGHT.

Byline: Alan Skobin, Jim Dunn and Bruce Ackerman Local View

OVER the past two decades, Los Angeles has become the United States' primary gateway to Asia. While this role takes on national significance in terms of trade, the global service economy and tourism, it also has served as a quiet engine of economic prosperity for the city itself. When the economy is strong, Asian-derived tourism and trade have generated enormous income for Los Angeles-based businesses. And when the economy is weaker, such as in the early 1990s, trade and tourism have served as a buttress that keeps Angelenos working and businesses open.

However, after the terrorist attacks in September 2001, Asian trade and tourism took a big hit, as security concerns affected Asians' travel plans and began to complicate the free flow of economic goods and services across the Pacific Ocean. To his enormous credit, and at the request and suggestion of many in the business community, Mayor James Hahn recognized that personal leadership and increased Asian contacts could help address these issues and dispel the post-9-11 slump.

Asian businesses view the world a little differently than we do in the United States. They have their own set of protocols and relationship- building that goes far beyond financial investments. In order to do business in Asia, you need to show you mean business. That means going the extra mile, for instance, traveling with a delegation to make sure there are key contacts from Los Angeles businesses for Asian counterparts. While the mayor opens doors, the business leaders close the deals. And that is exactly what occurred on the mayor's recently concluded trip.

From our perspective, every corner of the city benefited from the time the mayor and city departments invested in this rather grueling trip. While you were reading about the news conferences the mayor was staging to increase travel to the United States, improve the environment near the Port of Los Angeles, and boost security in shipping, you didn't read about the meetings with airline executives, embassy officials and tourism officials that were conducted to ensure that there were enough flights to Los Angeles, that programming was culturally significant and that travel packages met the needs of prospective visitors.

The delegation's role was to help the mayor make his sales presentation, augmenting his messages with specific details about the kinds of businesses, services and tourist destinations available throughout the city, from the harbor to the Valley. During the trip, Mayor Hahn made every effort to ensure that Los Angeles-based firms had access to the fruits of his diplomatic successes.

It's understandable that some might question the value of the trip, since it is hard to quantify until years later. Mayor Hahn signed numerous deals of immediate economic importance, and he laid the groundwork for many more, but some might say those deals only benefit the companies that gained contracts. Economic development policies like Mayor Hahn's, however, provide benefits that ripple throughout the city and the entire region.

Diplomatic trips need to be reinforced over time to ensure the lasting impact. For the first time in recent memory, Los Angeles needs to be marketed to the world. Our city has never been in that position before. The world has always come to Los Angeles and, for the most part, without solicitation. That all changed on Sept. 11.

Our directive now is to paint an appealing, compelling picture of the Los Angeles region. In addition to establishing those vitally important relationships with Asian communities, we need to give potential visitors - both leisure and business travelers - a feeling of congeniality and safety unlike anything they have ever experienced before in Los Angeles or anywhere else. We need to market the ``regions of Los Angeles'' - including the San Fernando Valley, the harbor and Hollywood - with a new sense of excitement and vigor. We watched New York do it very successfully in the aftermath of the attacks.

It's time for the ``entertainment capital of the world'' to begin selling itself, and Mayor Hahn's recent trip to Asia has struck the right tone for the start of the marketing campaign. The real impact of the numerous memorandums of understanding and trade agreements that he signed on the 10-day trip will be felt in our local economy for decades to come.