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A Must-Visit Destination For Arts, Sports, Entertainment, And Neighborhood Gems.
Los Angeles is an ever-evolving city full of fresh concepts and new experiences to discover. Whether you’re a first-time visitor or a returning friend, the City of Angels has seen countless exciting new offerings emerge in recent years. Across the region, new places to stay, award-winning dining experiences, vibrant attractions, advanced infrastructure and more make up “L.A. 2.0” offering all-new places to explore.
EVENTS AND MILESTONES
IPW: The World’s Largest Travel Conference Comes to LA (City-wide)
Los Angeles will host the U.S. Travel Association’s international inbound travel show (IPW) May 3 – 7, showcasing why LA is the ideal place to stay, play, and do business. Past IPW events have generated more than $5.5 billion in future travel by connecting U.S. travel exhibitors with travel buyers and media, securing Los Angeles’ position as a foremost global travel destination and showcasing the best of what the city has to offer.
Walt Disney Concert Hall’s 20th Anniversary Season (DTLA)
Home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Walt Disney Concert Hall presents the best in classical and contemporary music, international sounds and jazz, designed by architect Frank Gehry. The 2023-24 season, “20 Years and Beyond,” is inspired by Gehry’s innovative, groundbreaking design of the iconic home of the orchestra, and will present a range of artists and performances. The 20th anniversary season showcases a roster of acclaimed conductors and artists, including Thomas Adès, Herbert Blomstedt, and Karina Canellaki.
The Original Farmer’s Market Celebrates 90 Years (Mid City)
A favorite destination among locals and tourists, LA’s world-famous Original Farmers Market offers nearly 100 gourmet grocers, restaurants and retailers. Located at the corner of Fairfax and Third Street since 1934, the Market opened at what was then known as the Gilmore Ranch, where a dozen farmers and vendors parked their trucks on the corner to sell produce and other items from their tailgates. For the last 90 years, the Market has increasingly offered something for every taste – American, Brazilian, Cajun, Chinese, French, Italian, Middle Eastern, and more. Many of the businesses have been family-owned and operated for generations.
HOTELS
Los Angeles has added over 5,000 new hotel rooms in the last two years with options at virtually every price point, and the city has also seen a boutique hotel boom featuring unique new hotel concepts. Some exciting new properties across the region include The Conrad Los Angeles, Fairmont Century Plaza, Palihotel Hollywood, Palihouse West Hollywood and The Winfield in Downtown LA Proper. New properties continue to open their doors in many different areas of the city including the recently opened Moxy & AC Los Angeles in Downtown LA and Kensho Ryokan in the Arts District, welcoming guests to stay across LA’s 30 diverse neighborhoods.
EMERGING NEIGHBORHOODS
The Vinyl District
With a long, rich history as the entertainment capital of the world, Hollywood has welcomed film-lovers and star searchers to its iconic landmarks such as the Walk of Fame and Grauman’s Theatre for close to a century. There’s a reason travelers are drawn by “Old Hollywood,” but the Vinyl District is setting out to breathe new energy into the neighborhood while preserving its storied past.
Situated around the intersection of Selma and Wilcox just blocks away from Sunset Blvd., this emerging neighborhood was recently named the “Vinyl District” as a tribute to the area’s long history in the music industry with recording studios, record shops and entertainment labels making their home on its blocks throughout the years. The Vinyl District has witnessed a major development boom, with several glamorous hotels reminiscent of Hollywood stardom such as the Thompson Hollywood and Dream Hollywood, new dining concepts from famed LA chefs like Mother Wolf and Ka’teen as well as venues that pay homage to old Hollywood’s music scene while spinning the latest tracks. The Vinyl District is about paying tribute to Hollywood’s storied history while revitalizing the area for a new generation of Angelenos and visitors, with a multitude of ways to spend your day all in one exciting neighborhood.
The Arts District
A creative neighborhood flourishing with hubs for the arts, award-winning dining experiences and unique shopping, the Arts District in Downtown LA invites visitors to discover an area rich with cultural gems. A haven for artists in the 1970s, the neighborhood’s artistic landscape today includes murals around every corner by famed street artists such as Shepard Fairey, RETNA and WRDSMTH as well as curated galleries like Hauser & Wirth.
Culinary experiences are also a jewel of the Arts District with a variety of restaurants opening in the neighborhood. Several have been recognized on a global stage with French bistro Camphor receiving a MICHELIN Star and Brazilian restaurant Caboco receiving Bib Gourmand distinction, as well as LA Cha Cha Chá, Girl & the Goat, kodō, Yangban Society and Yunomi Handroll receiving MICHELIN recommendations.
Just blocks away, ROW DTLA transforms industrial buildings into over 30 boutique shops, a weekly outdoor market and dining offerings including MICHELIN-Starred restaurants Hayato and Kato as well as Bib Gourmand award recipient Pizzeria Bianco.
ARTS & CULTURE
LA’s arts and culture landscape continues to thrive with more museums and performing arts venues than any other city in the US. An exciting addition will be Destination Crenshaw, the largest public/private Black art program in the nation stamping Crenshaw Boulevard with a transformative infrastructure project that will boost the community through economic development, job creation and environmental healing while elevating Black art and culture. Spanning 1.3 miles of Crenshaw Boulevard, Destination Crenshaw will transform the area into a thriving corridor including beautiful community spaces, parks, newly planted trees and over 100 commissioned works of art later this year. True to Los Angeles’ ever-evolving nature, there is even more to come for the arts in LA with the new NHM Commons wing at the Natural History Museum in 2024, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art slated to open in 2025 and an exciting revamp of the La Brea Tar Pits taking visitors on a journey from prehistoric times to today expected in 2028.
PST Art: Art & Science Collide – Southern California’s landmark arts event (previously Pacific Standard Time), will return in September 2024 with more than 818 artists and 50 exhibitions, marking the largest art event in the United States. This year’s theme will explore the fascinating intersections of art and science from biotechnology to sustainable agriculture and ancient cosmologies to Indigenous science-fiction. Exhibitions in Los Angeles will include We Live in Painting:The Nature of Color in Mesoamerican Art on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and Drawing with Light at the Getty Center.
Sports, Entertainment & Attractions
This year marks 60 Years of Theme Park Adventures at Universal Studios Hollywood (The Valley)
Fantastic for the entire family, Universal Studios Hollywood offers visitors everything from live studio tours and immersive games to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and the newly-opened Super Nintendo World. While Universal Studios Hollywood first opened as a film studio in 1914, the theme park will commemorate its 60th anniversary in 2024. For movie lovers, The World-Famous Studio Tour lets you go behind the scenes to see where favorite films and television shows were (and still are) filmed. Now, visitors are invited to behold the original Jupiter’s Claim set from Jordan Peele’s latest horror epic, NOPE.
Our sports and entertainment venues are also ready to welcome major events including the 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2028 Summer Olympic & Paralympic Games at new venues such as Super Bowl LVI host SoFi Stadium and Intuit Dome arriving in 2024. The new women’s pro soccer team Angel City Football Club brings Los Angeles to a total of 11 professional sports teams, the most in the United States. With iconic teams such as the Rams, Lakers, Dodgers, Clippers, Kings and more, Los Angeles is a global epicenter of sports and entertainment. The city’s legendary teams have venues to match with spectacular arenas including Dodger Stadium, Crypto.com Arena and Banc of California Stadium
DINING
LA has also established itself as a global dining capital with 26 Angeleno restaurants receiving Michelin Stars across the city in neighborhoods such as Downtown LA, the Arts District, Hollywood and beyond. 10 Los Angeles restaurants also made their debut on the Bib Gourmand list, recognized for their exceptional food at a great value. LA’s unique culinary offering spanning over 400 food trucks to high-end dining experiences is a result of the 140 different nationalities that call Los Angeles home, with many cultures reflected in LA’s dining scene. From modern French at Camphor and Southern-inspired American at Hatchet Hall to European-style Gwen and contemporary fare at Manzke, Los Angeles continues to captivate the imagination of the culinary world, offering world-class cuisine from our ever-evolving street food to fine dining in iconic settings.
This year, Dine LA Restaurant Week will be celebrating its Sweet 16. Since its inception in January 2008, Dine LA Restaurant Week has grown to be one of the largest restaurant weeks in the country with more than 350 restaurants participating last Fall. The program continues to stimulate business for the local culinary community by bringing new diners through their doors and reminding locals to discover the breadth of culinary offerings within their neighborhoods. The bi-annual 15-day dining event will return from July 12-26 this summer, with an expected 400 or more restaurant partners. As a community-focused program, DineLA welcomes foodies to enjoy restaurants and cuisines of all price levels.
REVOLUTIONIZING TOURISM
The Automated People Mover (APM) is the centerpiece of LAX’s $5.5 billion Landside Access Modernization Program (LAMP) which will enhance the traveller experience, give guests time-certain access to terminals and provide the long-awaited connection to the regional transportation system. This project is a key portion of LAX’s $14 billion modernization program, considered the largest public works program in the history of the City of Los Angeles. The APM is an electric train system on a 2.25-mile elevated guideway with six stations total – three inside the Central Terminal Area (CTA) and three outside the CTA.
LA’s Metro system is also seeing several projects in motion, including the recently opened K Line serving the Crenshaw, Inglewood and Westchester areas with eight new stations. Upcoming updates also include the Regional Connector Transit Project improving connections between East Los Angeles and the Beach Cities with three new stations and the Purple (D Line) Extension Transit Project expanding the rail system to the Westside. These improvements will help equip our city to serve global visitors with more efficient, sustainable transportation options.
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