Tourism experts divided over LAPD campaign plan.

Cops would press for labor pact by harming tourism

The Los Angeles police union's campaign to discourage tourism and convention business in order to press the city into a new labor contract has the potential of seriously hurting the area's $8.2-billion-a-year visitor industry, said local and national industry officials.

The representatives said last week the campaign should be taken seriously and may very well persuade some leisure travelers to stay away from the city, as well as convention organizers to cancel meeting plans.

Late last week, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan said he would make a new contract offer this week to the police. Published reports said the offer would include a 6 percent pay raise over two years. The police union declined comment.

Meanwhile, Michael Collins, senior vice president of the Los Angeles Convention & Visitors Bureau, said despite the threat against the industry, the agency was staying out of the contract dispute. The executive said the dispute was an issue between the city and the police.

In interviews, some in the tourism industry said the campaign will have little or no effect on travelers to the city. But most industry representatives expressed concern.

What concerns them, they said, is the campaign could reach past industry professionals to consumers who may ignore or not realize the police are involved in a contract dispute with the city. They said if the campaign is picked up by the media, it could have a serious effect on the local tourism and convention business, which produces about $8.2 billion a year in revenue in Los Angeles County.

Last week the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents the city's police officers, began its campaign to keep tourists and conventions away by highlighting the city's crime problem. The league sent out 250 letters addressed to "tourist industry representatives" in the Southland informing them of its intention to launch a full-scale campaign. The letter clearly states the campaign is a negotiating tactic.

In coming weeks, the league said, it plans to send out brochures to industry representatives around the world, followed by a video.

"We are in the process of developing and producing a video that depicts the true state of affairs in our city and the ineffectiveness of its police department. It is designed to advise tourist not to come to Los Angeles for their own safety's sake," said the letter, which is dated March 14. The letter is signed by league President Danny Staggs.

Late last month the union said it was going to target the tourism industry if a new contract was not signed. Last week's letter was the first concrete action taken by the union to carry out its threat.

Dennis Zine, a director of the league, said the next step is to take the campaign to national tourism and convention industry groups, followed by international agencies that book travel or business meetings in Los Angeles.

He said the league will particularly target potential users of the newly expanded, $500 million Los Angeles Convention Center, and possible visitors to the World Cup soccer tournament games that will be held at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena in June and July.

"We have been without a contract for over 20 months now," said Zine. "We have to do something."

Noel Irwin-Hentschel, chairwoman of AmericanTours International in Los Angeles, said she was "worried" about the possible consequences of the action.

"There are already many people in some countries of the world who do not want to come here because of the crime situation. With something like this, it could get worse," she said. At her company, she said, there has been a decline in travel from Japan and the United Kingdom because of crime in the United States.

"We have been told from travel agents and tour operators in those countries that people are afraid of the crime," said Irwin-Hentschel.

AmericanTours claims to be one of the biggest sellers of leisure travel packages into the United States. The company says it annually brings about 600,000 visitors from overseas into the U.S. on leisure tour packages. About half the visitors make stops in California, said Irwin-Hentschel.

Hank Phillips, executive vice president of the National Tour Association, a Lexington, Ky.-based trade organization that represents tour operators in the U.S., said the campaign could hurt travel into Los Angeles.

"The concern I have is not so much how the travel industry will react but how consumers are going to react. A lot of people were brought up thinking that what the police tell you is true, to respect what police say," he said. "Something like this could force some people to change their plans."

Paul Ruden, senior vice president for legal and industry affairs for the American Society of Travel Agents, was one of the representatives who said the campaign would probably not hurt tourism or convention business.

"I think travel agents, as well as consumers, will see through this and realize it's just a tactic to gain leverage. I really don't think it will have much of an effect," he said.

The American Society of Travel Agents, based in Alexandria, Va., represents about 11,000 travel agencies in the United States.

Collins of the convention bureau said the campaign concerns the bureau because people outside the area may not fully understand that it is driven by a labor dispute.

"It has the very real potential of doing some damage because there will be some people who don't want to see what's really going on or who want to perhaps support the union," said Collins.

He said so far none of the organizers of the 19 planned conventions at the Convention Center has contacted the bureau about the police action.