On January 27-29, The Los Angeles Times hosted the 14th-annual Travel Show at the L.A. Convention Center. For the first time, the Travel Show included a travel industry conference that attracted nearly 24,300 speakers, travel professionals, industry leaders and consumers to the conference. The L.A. Convention Center, recorded a record breaking attendance for the event this year and called it the “must-attend Southern California travel event of the year.”David Burns, the Vice President of Promotional Revenue, Sports and Events for the Times explained, “The 2012 Travel Show surpassed our wildest attendance expectations and it’s enormously gratifying to have our first industry-focused conference receive such a great response. We effectively brought the world to Southern California in great style.”

The Times chose to team with MSE Management and IMG Worldwide to produce the event and to plan and execute upgrades to the conference. This year the travel show took pride in featuring popular speakers that included Lisa Ling, Rick Steves, Arthur Frommer, Adam Richman, Rudy Maxa, Don Wildman, Josh Gates and Johnny Jet. The LA Times Travel show also brought in travel experts from the National Geographic Channel, LivingSocial Escapes and Travelzoo to this years conference.

More than 2,000 travel specialists took advantage of the occasion to attend the innovative industry conference sessions. People at the conference spent hours walking through the Travel Show, with 90 percent of visitors interested in details about prospective travel destinations with 94 percent of visitors planning to travel in 2012.