Seeing L.A. as visitors do: perceptions influence tourism economy.

OLD stereotypes can die hard.

Perhaps that's why Kim Huynh of Dallas, who came to L.A. for a one-day side-trip from Las Vegas, was hoping to spot a movie star or two.

"When you see it on TV, it seems like there are so many celebrities and so many different personalities," said Huynh, standing outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre and doing what every tourist does: gazing at the famous foot- and handprints of the stars.

"When you get here, it's just a normal town," she said.

Well not quite, but after spending a full day last week with dozens of visitors from New Zealand, Boston and many places in between, it became apparent that the reality known as Los Angeles was running roughshod over the hype.

They were surprised, for example, that Hollywood wasn't more glamorous, or that there weren't a sufficient number of "freaks" at the Venice boardwalk. Some said traffic wasn't quite as bad as they imagined--and the smog was far worse. A few even were surprised at how friendly Angelenos can be.

"They think we have all just left the plastic surgeons or the gym, that we all have something to do with the movies and we're all gorgeous,'" said Patt Morrison, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times and frequent chronicler of the city.

With the tourist season in full swing, the perceptions of 8 million visitors expected this summer are no small matter. They can influence future trips to the region, the No. 2 destination for international visitors and No. 4 for domestic travelers (behind New York, Orlando and Las Vegas). They also can influence that all-important word-of-mouth once the tourists return home.

"Perceptions are important," said David Sheatsley, vice president of research for LA Inc., the conventions and visitors bureau. "If you tell your friends and co-workers that you're going to Los Angeles on vacation, when you get back everyone wants to hear about your trip. If you had a great time you'll show your co-workers pictures of L.A. If it didn't meet your expectations, you're going to tell them."

'Window on the world'

A survey conducted by LA Inc. from August 2003 through April 2004 found that 30 percent of visitors said they were extremely satisfied with their trip here. Fifty-two percent said they were very satisfied, 15 percent were somewhat satisfied. 3 percent were not very satisfied, and less than 1 percent were not at all satisfied.

Michael Collins, executive vice president of LA Inc., didn't seem fazed by the differing reactions from tourists.

"That's what L.A. is, these well-developed, almost paradoxical kinds of characteristics almost within a single visit," he said. "'When people give their take on L.A., we're really seeing a window on the world that they come from and they reflect that world in how they react to and engage in their experience in L.A."

For the most part, visitors sampled last week were pretty savvy about all the nuances--a far cry from the bug-eyed ways of Lucy Ricardo on the old "I Love Lucy" TV show, when the likes of William Holden, Van Johnson and John Wayne playing themselves made it seem as if movie stars were around every corner.

"The late Mayor Sam Yorty said when he was traveling the world to promote Los Angeles that the question he most often got was, 'Los Angeles, is that near Hollywood?' which is the way most people in the world identify Los Angeles," Momson said.

"They, do see Los Angeles in films, but so much of Los Angeles is pretending to be something else that they' don't know it's Los Angeles. The city is big enough and different enough that it can stand in for anything," she said.

All of which was pretty apparent one day last week on the 5 1/2-hour Starline Tours excursion throughout Los Angeles--an ambitious trek that covered the Hollywood Bowl, Chinatown, the Sunset Strip, the Music Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Olvera Street, Farmers Market, the La Brea Tar Pits. Rodeo Drive and the Hollywood sign.

No wonder they call it the Grand Tour.

"There's a lot of real estate here," said the tour guide, Burl Kindrick. "Everyone has a car. We average three cars per family. Public transportation is really bad, which is why you see so many cars. If you depend on public transportation, you're in trouble."

Must-see experience

That three-car per family line may be suspect, but the tour's descriptions were generally on target. In fact, a quick check of tourist information on Los Angeles pretty much captures the city, for better and worse. At least one celebrity map includes the Saks Fifth Avenue location in Beverly Hills, where actress Wynona Ryder shoplifted several items.

In an online site called Bugbog, L.A. is described this way: "Truly one of the grotesque, must-see cities of the world; you may well hale it but if you've ever seen a Hollywood movie you have to experience it once." Still, the site has some nice things to say about, among other things, architecture downtown, people watching in Santa Monica and the coastal views in Malibu. "Your chances of seeing a real star are small," the site warns, "but there's no shortage of beautiful, interesting, self-publicizing wannabes waiting tables."

Back at the Chinese Theatre, David Schwartz from Salem, Ohio, said he was "utterly un-amazed" by a visit to Venice.

"It was nice with all the hustle and bustle, but we were looking for freaks and creeps and strange things," he said. "It was a regular tourist joint. It was certainly not as off-the-wall as we expected. We didn't see a multi-zillion tattooed people."

On the Starline tour, Mike Fenis, who was halfway through a two-week visit from Timaru, New Zealand, said he came to Los Angeles to catch the attractions and was not disappointed after seeing Universal Studios, the House of Blues. Magic Mountain--and then taking a 22-seat limo to the Key Club.

The things that surprised him? Roller coasters at Magic Mountain, (almost non-existent in New Zealand), the vehicles (much larger than in New Zealand), the intricacies of the freeways, and the fact that there's wildlife like birds and squirrels around town.

Collins admitted that visitors trying to go to locations like Santa Monica from downtown would not have had as easy a time of it. And Morrison finds that Los Angeles is the opposite of New York, "where it's a nice place to visit but you wouldn't want to live there."

L.A., she explained, "can be a difficult place to visit but a wonderful place to live because our public transportation is not easy and because things are scattered so far and wide."

For those looking for something beyond the norm, she proposes a "quirky tour" of Los Angeles.

"There are hidden bits of the city that don't make it onto the standard tour or map--quirky places you wouldn't hit if you've come to Universal Studios or the Disney Concert Hall."