Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa opened a tourism office in Beijing on Monday, making Los Angeles the first city in the world to have such an office in China, the City News Service reported.

Beijing is the first leg of the mayor's Asia tour, which will also take him to Japan and South Korea.

"The tourism industry is critical to the economic health of Los Angeles -- employing hundreds of thousands of Angelenos and pumping billions into our local economy," Villaraigosa was quoted as saying.

"With the opening of the new tourism office in Beijing, Los Angeles is putting down a permanent welcome mat for the tens of millions of Chinese tourists who will visit our great city in the coming years. More tourism means more jobs and a healthier economy. "

Meanwhile, the Mayor's Office said the L.A. Inc. tourism office will market Los Angeles as an attractive business and leisure destination for Chinese people with the resources for international travel.

China currently ranks seventh worldwide in total travel expenditures, and is expected to rank second in total travel expenditures by 2015, said the report.

China is Los Angeles' fastest growing overseas visitor market. The number of visitors from China increased by 41 percent in 2003-04 and by an additional 26 percent in 2004-05. Of the 12.9-billion- dollar in direct visitor spending in Los Angeles in 2005, 78 million dollars were generated by visitors from China, according to the Mayor's Office.

In 2005, 54 percent of visitors from China traveled to Los Angeles for business purposes, while only 11 percent traveled for leisure. When restrictions on group travel to the United States are lifted -- which it is expected to do within 12 to 18 months -- Los Angeles could see a 50-100 percent increase in leisure travel from the Chinese market within the first year.

By establishing a tourism office in Beijing, Villaraigosa hopes to capture a significant share of the expected 50 million new Chinese who will travel to the United States by 2010. The World Tourism Organization estimates that China will supply 100 million annual travelers to the United States by 2020.

The L.A. Inc. tourism office will target China's three largest cities, which account for nearly half of China's outbound tourist population -- Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The tourism office will partner with Chinese airlines to promote the Los Angeles International Airport and work with travel agents to develop tour packages for travel to Los Angeles.

Tourism is the second largest industry in Los Angeles, employing more than 260,000 people. In 2005, 24.9 million tourists visited Los Angeles, contributing 12.9 billion dollars to the economy in direct visitor spending and 28.5 billion dollars in total economic impact.

Los Angeles is the second largest destination in the United States for international visitors. An estimated 4.6 million international travelers visited Los Angeles in 2005, accounting for 9.2 percent of all international visitors to the United States.

International visitors spent an estimated 3.8 billion dollars in Los Angeles in 2005, or 28 percent of the total travel spending by domestic and international visitors.

The opening of the L.A. Inc. tourism office in Beijing is the first of several moves taken by Villaraigosa to boost the Los Angeles tourism industry during his 14-day Asian Trade Mission.

(Xinhua News Agency October 10, 2006)