Dennis RomeroAmong our not-so-dubious distinctions — worst city in America for traffic, some of the worst roads in the nation — come a few new ones today:
L.A. is a Top 2 city business travelers don't want to go to. And LAX is one of the Top 3 airports they loathe. Yay!
Yep. Even as LAX was touting a Facebook proclamation that it's the “most social airport in the world” based on the number of people who “check-in” virtually on the site at the L.A. landmark, a new survey says business guys and girls pretty much hate coming here:
The virtual conference website ON24 surveyed 3,756 business folks and found that L.A. follows only Houston among the top places they really would rather not end up ( — and only working from the home office, online, ranked higher):
Houston – 49.3%
Los Angeles – 41.7%
Orlando – 37.5%
Miami – 33.3%
Chicago – 27.8%
We talked to ON24 executives who said Houston was named No. 1 mainly because of its hot-and-sticky weather. So what's L.A.'s excuse?
“L.A. is a wonderful place to go to if you're a tourist,” said chief marketing officer Denise Persson. “But the business traveller is looking more for convenience. A place like like L.A. might be more difficult to navigate because of the traffic.”
Tricia Heinrich, senior director for strategic communications notes that “LAX didn't fare well either” among its survey takers.
Yeah, the whole Facebook thing we get because Angelenos are generally high-tech early adopters. But LAX doesn't even have free wi-fi. Nuff said.
And so … the ON24 survey put LAX as third in its rankings of “the nation's worst airport.” There ya go. We were beat out by Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson and Washington D.C.'s Dulles airports.
LAX traveler Alec Baldwin.
The ON24 folks, however, were easy on us and noted that, like Alec Baldwin, business travelers in general were an unhappy bunch, citing poor service and high prices wherever they go: “92% of executives are fed up with business travel,” the company states.
Persson:
L.A. doesn't promote itself as a business travelers destination. It represents something completely different.
Tells us about it. And business folks' favorite destination? Our nemesis: San Francisco.
[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]
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