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Rivalries belie SoCal's desire to draw visitors: conventions still key components for markets in San Diego, Orange County, L.A.

Article Excerpt
To outsiders, Southern California is one big tourist playground.

The Santa Monica Pier, Disneyland, Sea-World San Diego and other tourist draws blur together as a sprawling, sun-kissed region with little regard to cities and county lines.

But up close, Orange, Los Angeles and San Diego counties are as much rivals for visitors as they are partners in promoting Southern California as a fun zone of theme parks, beaches and shopping.

"We are each other's best customers," said Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. "But there is a rivalry."

The three markets-feed off one another, creating a regional tourism market worth $25 billion annually and employing some 500,000 people. The competition comes down to how long visitors stay in each county, according to Kyser. And the stakes are high this year with the expanding economy, weak dollar and some big draws: Disneyland's heavy marketing for its 50th anniversary, the launch of Disney cruises at the Port of...