[Edaily Reporter Kim Una ] Ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles (LA) Olympics, California is directing tourists to surrounding cities. The plan is to combine watching the games with beach vacations, fine dining, and cultural and artistic experiences to encourage tourists to stay longer in more areas.
On the 12th, the California Tourism Board held the “California Tourism Board Trade Media Mission” at the Conrad Hotel in Seoul and introduced a tourism strategy that links watching Olympic events with travel to surrounding cities during the Games. Representatives from tourism boards and tourism facilities in eight regions visited Korea for the event to meet with members of the domestic travel industry and media representatives.

The Los Angeles Olympics will take place over 17 days, from July 14 to 30, 2028, primarily in Southern California, including Los Angeles, Inglewood, Long Beach, and Pasadena. Since no new permanent venues are being built and existing facilities throughout the region are being utilized, the venues are scattered across multiple cities. This means that attending events naturally leads to travel between cities.
Surrounding cities highlighted their strengths in lodging and local experiences. Santa Monica boasts 40 hotels and three train stations providing access to major LA attractions and venues. It also offers a variety of tourist attractions and experiential programs, including the Santa Monica Pier—the terminus of Route 66—as well as beach yoga, private surfing lessons, and a coastal bike path extending to the South Bay.
Greater Palm Springs, home to the world-renowned Coachella music festival, is a desert resort area comprising nine cities, with approximately 190 hotels and 19,000 guest rooms. Visitors can enjoy spas featuring natural hot springs, as well as outdoor activities such as golf and tennis, and explore Mid-Century Modern architecture and public art installations set up in the city center following the festival.
In Los Angeles, cultural facilities centered on art, film, and space science have been opening one after another, offering tourists more to see. Following the sequential openings of the “David Geffen Gallery” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the AI art museum “DataLand,” and the “Lucas Narrative Art Museum,” the “Samuel Oshin Aerospace Center” will open on the 13th (local time). This is the first facility where visitors can see the space shuttle “Endeavor” exactly as it appeared just before launch. Korean Air participated as a main sponsor in the center’s construction, and visitors can also view a Boeing 747 passenger jet donated by Korean Air in the exhibition hall.

San Francisco will also host events commemorating the 60th anniversary of the “Summer of Love” in 2027. The Summer of Love was a counterculture movement in 1967 when approximately 100,000 young people gathered in San Francisco to advocate for peace, love, and individual freedom. It influenced music, fashion, and the arts as a whole, establishing San Francisco as the center of hippie culture.
Javier Roque, PR Manager for the California Tourism Board, said, “California is the ‘ultimate playground’ where visitors can enjoy travel in a variety of destinations, such as Pasadena and Santa Monica.” He added, “We plan to encourage visitors to extend their stays and take road trips to surrounding areas, capitalizing on the Super Bowl in Los Angeles in February 2027 and the Olympics the following year.”