Peter Ostroff
A Voice for Beverly Hills — Past, Present, and Future
Inside the Conference & Visitors Bureau
The Beverly Hills Conference & Visitors Bureau (CVB) is the city's official organization for promoting tourism and enhancing economic vitality by attracting visitors to local hotels, restaurants, and attractions, primarily funded by hotel occupancy taxes. Under the leadership of CEO Julie Wagner and a board of directors from major local hotels, the CVB aims to boost visitor numbers, which have declined significantly since pre-COVID times, while also preparing for upcoming major sporting events in the Los Angeles region.
Inside the Conference & Visitors Bureau
It is important that you know about the Beverly Hills Conference & Visitors Bureau (CVB), the city’s official destination marketing organization and what it does.
The CVB is responsible for promoting Beverly Hills as the premier visitor destination — encouraging people to stay, shop, dine, and explore local attractions. Its mission is to boost economic and social vitality by driving visitor traffic to hotels, restaurants, shops, and events in the city. It is funded by a portion of the City’s Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) which is specifically allocated for marketing and tourism efforts.
The CVB serves as the city’s dedicated marketing engine—funded through a segment of the hotel occupancy tax—to attract and assist visitors, media, and planners. It combines visitor services, travel-trade engagement, and creative promotional content to position Beverly Hills as a world-class travel destination.
The CEO of the CVB is Julie Wagner, who has great experience in domestic and international marketing in the hospitality industry. After UCLA, she spent 18 years with Hilton Hotels, first marketing the Hilton Honors program and then helped launch the Waldorf-Astoria brand for Hilton. Julie joined the CVB in 2010 as Director of Marketing and became CEO in 2011.
Julie summarizes the work of the CVB as follows:
“In addition to marketing the City of Beverly Hills globally through advertising, social media and ecommunications, The Beverly Hills Conference & Visitors Bureau will be increasing its focus on sales efforts by adding another Group Sales Director who will be responsible for developing more meeting and incentive business from planners and companies located in the western region of the United States. Additionally, the CVB works in close conjunction with the city, Chamber of Commerce and Rodeo Drive Committee by supporting Council and Mayoral initiatives as well as making sure our city is ready for the upcoming major sporting events coming to the Los Angeles Region including, NBA All-Star game in February 2026, FIFA World Cup quarter finals in June and July 2026, Super Bowl in early 2027 and, of course, the Summer Olympics and Paralympics in 2028.”
The CVB is overseen by its Board of Directors which is comprised of the leaders of the major hotels and business and community leaders. The Chair for the 2025-6 year is Sam Jagger, the Managing Director of the Maybourne Hotel. Other hotel representatives on the board are Tod Chambers, General Manager of the Waldorf-Astoria, David Ecija, General Manager of the Beverly Hilton, Reid Kandalaft, General Manager of the Beverly Wilshire, Offer Nissenbaum, Managing Director of the Peninsula Hotel, John Scallon, General Manager of the Beverly Hills Hotel and Frederick Zenmour, General Manager of the L’Ermitage. Other members of the board include Bill Wiley, General Manager of Two Rodeo, Gaby Alexander, John Bendheim, Publisher of the Beverly Hills Courier, former Beverly Hills Mayor Linda Briskman, former Beverly Hills City Treasurer Eliot Finkel, Keinan Gill, and Kathy Gohari, the head of the Rodeo Drive Committee.
Important Disclosure: I am a member of the CVB’s Board of Directors and an unabashed supporter.
It maintains a Visitor Center (located at 9400 S. Santa Monica Blvd) which offers visitors concierge services—tour reservations, travel guides, and branded merchandise. It’s staffed by multilingual ambassadors to assist travelers. In addition to Julie Wagner, there are eight full-time CVB employees and one part time employee working in various marketing capacities including communications and partnerships, group sales, leisure sales, digital marketing and visitor services and concierge services at the Visitor Center.
The purpose of the CVB is to generate funds for the City that can be used to support and enhance services to the residents. This is principally through hotel occupancy taxes and sales taxes from restaurants and shops.
More specifically, the CVB employees work to generate group sales, market the City as a destination to consumers through digital platforms, advertising and an e-newsletter. They attempt to build global awareness internationally by contracting with travel, trade and public relations agencies that drive media stories and awareness among luxury travel agents. Domestically they work with public relations agencies to raise awareness of the Beverly Hills brand and what is going on in the City. They also work with leisure travel agents to influence them to encourage their clients to visit Beverly Hills.
This is a challenging and highly competitive market. In 2023, it is estimated that the City had nearly 5M visitors denied as persons visiting the City who live at least 50 miles away. This is a substantial reduction in visitors from over 7.5M in pre-COVID years. The reduction is primarily due to the COVID shutdowns and slow recovery from those and due to the current difficulties that visitors from some foreign countries face in obtaining visas necessary to visit.
New chairman of the board, Sam Jagger, Managing Director of the Maybourne said:
“It is a true honor to serve our community and the Beverly Hills Conference & Visitors Bureau as this year’s Board Chair. The CVB serves as the principal artery of the City, promoting our destination and driving visitation to support the vitality of our business community.
“My immediate priorities are to provide guidance and counsel to our President and team, while working in close partnership with my fellow board members. Strategically promoting Beverly Hills and thoughtfully allocating our resources to maximize return on investment are essential to our shared success—and to ensuring continued prosperity “for both our residents and businesses.”
Frederick Zenmour of L’Ermitage explains that the CVB is of particular importance to L’Ermitage which is an independent hotel, not part of a large group. He explains “We do not have an international or even national marketing organization. We do not have dedicated group sales or leisure sales personnel. For our marketing we rely heavily on what the CVB does and their help is invaluable.”
Personally, I consider it a great privilege to work with an outstanding board and to promote my favorite city.
Peter Ostroff is a long-time Beverly Hills resident of over 50 years who retired in 2017 after a distinguished 50-year career as a trial lawyer. Since 2018, he has served on the Beverly Hills Planning Commission. In addition to his work on the Commission, Peter has chaired the BHUSD 7-11 Surplus Property Committee and contributed to planning efforts for the District Offices site on S. Lasky Drive and future uses of the Hawthorne School property. He also served as Co-Chair of the Citizens Advisory Committee for the City's Climate Adaptation and Action Plan.
petero@ostroff.laMore from the Archive
Undocumented Residents – An Over Reaction to a Manufactured "Crisis"
In his article, Peter Ostroff argues that the current immigration crisis is largely a manufactured issue, fueled by inflammatory rhetoric from political figures like Donald Trump, which has led to aggressive enforcement actions against undocumented residents that are often disproportionate and harmful. He advocates for a more humane approach, suggesting that offering amnesty to long-term, law-abiding undocumented individuals, coupled with better border security, could be a more effective solution than the current punitive measures.
Los Angeles County/City Dysfunction
The article critiques the dysfunction between Los Angeles City and County officials, particularly highlighting their failure to effectively address homelessness and the aftermath of recent fires. It emphasizes the lack of accountability and transparency in the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, the resignation of its CEO amid controversy, and the chaotic recovery efforts following the Palisades fires, all exacerbated by personal conflicts among elected leaders.
Writers Bloc and Study Sessions
Andrea Grossman, a long-time Beverly Hills resident, has significantly enriched the local cultural scene through her non-profit Writers Bloc, which hosts literary events featuring prominent authors and public figures. Meanwhile, the Beverly Hills City Council is debating procedural changes for their afternoon Study Sessions, with discussions focusing on the appropriateness of taking action during these meetings, while the Board of Education has opted to select a former principal as Superintendent without a comprehensive search process.