Support LA Tourism

Protect Los Angeles & the Economic Contributions of Tourism

With the City of Los Angeles facing a $1 billion dollar deficit and laying off 1,600 City workers, now is not the time to implement policy that threatens critically needed City tax revenue.

The hotel tax — or Transient Occupancy Tax — is a tax paid by hotel guests and which funds City services Angelenos rely on. These dollars go directly into the General Fund and help pay for essential City services like firefighters, police officers, waste management, libraries and parks.

The City is considering a hotel worker ordinance that would dramatically increase the cost of doing business, threatening both vital hotel tax contributions and the livelihoods of hospitality workers. Join us in telling the Los Angeles City Council now is the wrong time to pursue such an ill-conceived ordinance.

Visitors contributed more than $300 million in hotel guest tax last year, which is equivalent to City funding for:

Fire

LA’s cost to fight the Palisades wildfire and repair damage to City property.

Police

Salaries for 3,000 sworn police officers.

Sanitation

Employing City staff to pick up trash, maintain sewer lines and oversee wastewater collection and treatment.

Libraries

Operating all of the City’s 72 public libraries and programs.

Parks

Maintaining Los Angeles’ 559 public parks, including the iconic Griffith Park, senior centers, childcares, dog parks and beaches.

Protect essential City services and City workers.

Support City services by telling the Los Angeles City Council the Hotel Worker Minimum Wage Ordinance (HWMO) is unmanageable in these economic conditions. We must do everything we can to protect essential City revenue.

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Dear Council Member, 

With the City of Los Angeles facing a $1 billion dollar deficit and laying off 1,600 City workers, now is not the time to implement a policy that threatens critically needed City tax revenue. 

For that reason, I urge you to protect City workers and City services by delaying the Hotel Worker Minimum Wage Ordinance (HWMO). Dramatically increasing labor costs at a time when the tourism industry is already facing significant challenges could result in fewer tourists visiting Los Angeles, which will mean less hotel, sales and business tax revenue into the City. This ordinance is a bad idea at the worst possible time. 

Tourism is one of the biggest economic drivers of the region, employing more than a half million Angelenos and generating more than $40 billion in tax revenue. Hotels generate more than $300 million a year for the City’s General Fund, via the transient occupancy tax. Were this ordinance to take effect, it would drive up hotel costs so much that many hotels would have to close or scale back restaurants and bar service, valet parking and other amenities. This would ultimately mean lost jobs and lost tax revenue into the City of Los Angeles. 

As a constituent, I join the Hotel Association of Los Angeles in asking that you help stabilize tourism in order to safeguard jobs, protect City services and contribute to the overall recovery and resilience of Los Angeles. I respectfully request that you delay consideration of the Hotel Worker Minimum Wage Ordinance (HWMO) — which asks for too much, too soon — until you have worked with the industry to find a balanced approach that keeps hotels open, protects jobs and continues to generate a strong tax base for the City. 

Thank you,

How Do Hotel Bookings Impact the L.A. City Budget?

An Economic Powerhouse for Los Angeles

- Tourism is one of the biggest economic drivers of the regional economy, employing more than a half million Angelenos and generating more than $40 billion in tax revenue.
- An estimated 50 million visitors are welcomed to L.A. every year and for every dollar they spend on a hotel room, an additional $2.12 in spending is created.

Challenging Operating Environment

- Los Angeles’ tourism industry has yet to recover from the pandemic, city-wide conventions continue to decline.
- The Palisades and Eaton fires negatively affected hotels, with booking and occupancy rates down even more since January as Los Angeles fights the misperception that the fires reduced the City to ashes.
- International tourism is already on track to be down 9.4% in 2025, a Canadian boycott alone could result in 770,000 fewer visitors to Los Angeles.

Disastrous Real World Impacts

The Los Angeles City Council is considering an unprecedented 69% increase in labor costs. The dramatic increase would:

- Force hotels to reduce staff, leading to the closure of services and amenities such as restaurants, cafes and gift shops.

- Prompt hotels to close, causing hundreds of Angelenos to lose their incomes and health care benefits with each closure.
- Make it unaffordable to provide services like valet parking or security.
- Devastate small business and family-operated hotels.

The Los Angeles City Council is considering an unprecedented 69% increase in labor costs. The dramatic increase would:

- Force hotels to reduce staff, leading to the closure of services and amenities such as restaurants, cafes and gift shops.

- Prompt hotels to close, causing hundreds of Angelenos to lose their incomes and health care benefits with each closure.
- Make it unaffordable to provide services like valet parking or security.
- Devastate small business and family-operated hotels.

Hotels, Tourism as Major Economic Driver

Tourism is one of the biggest economic drivers of the regional economy, employing more than a half million Angelenos and generating more than $40 billion in tax revenue. An estimated 50 million visitors are welcomed to L.A. every year and for every dollar they spend on a hotel room, an additional $2.12 in spending is created.

Protect essential City services and City workers.

Supporting Los Angeles During the Palisades and Eaton Fires

When the Palisades and Eaton fires erupted in January 2025, hotels across Los Angeles mobilized to support impacted residents and first responders by offering free and discounted rooms, adjusting standard policies, and leveraging all available resources.