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At Los Angeles International Airport, the future already glides above the traffic. Sleek electric trains travel the elevated SkyLink tracks. There is just one small hitch: passengers cannot board them yet.

It is a splendidly Californian predicament. The spectacle is ready; the practical details are still being sorted out.

And it offers a useful warning to anyone heralding the next great tourism bonanza between North America and the Pacific. A glossy promise is one thing. Getting people from A to B, with their luggage, money and enthusiasm intact, is quite another.

Los Angeles has an extraordinary hand to play. It has Hollywood, beaches, sporting blockbusters and an enormous visitor economy. Fiji, Tahiti and the Cook Islands have the beaches, culture and unhurried pace that many long-haul travellers seek after exhausting themselves in a big city. Airlines are providing some of the links.

The opportunity for Australian travel advisers is obvious. The assumption that it will all come together effortlessly is less convincing.

Hollywood has the glamour. Tourism pays the bills.

For all the city’s talent for make-believe, its visitor accounts are firmly rooted in reality. Los Angeles Tourism reports that 49.5 million people visited the region in 2025: 43.1 million domestic visitors and 6.4 million international visitors.

Together, they generated an estimated US$42.6 billion in business sales and supported more than 530,000 jobs across Los Angeles County. That is a great many restaurant meals, hotel beds, taxi journeys and museum tickets. It also helps explain why the world’s entertainment capital takes the decidedly uncinematic business of tourism so seriously.

The convention sector is another contributor. The Los Angeles Convention Centre hosted 19 citywide conventions in 2025, attracting more than 260,000 attendees and generating over 209,000 hotel room nights, according to the tourism board. Australia’s presence among the city’s leading international source markets makes this particularly relevant to local agents.

But big numbers require a little discipline. They describe what happened in 2025. They do not, by themselves, guarantee a bigger 2027, cheaper airfare or a hotel room within sensible distance of the next sporting extravaganza.

California’s forecasts contain a sting in the tail

The latest Visit California forecast, released on 8 October, predicts 276.3 million statewide visits in 2026, up 1.8 per cent, and US$166.3 billion in visitor spending, a 4.7 per cent increase.

Those are healthy figures, although the champagne may be premature. Strip out inflation, and the forecast spending increase shrinks to 1.2 per cent in real terms. More dollars through the till do not necessarily mean much more activity. Sometimes they merely mean everything costs more.

Nor are all international markets travelling in the same direction. Overall international arrivals are forecast to grow 2.4 per cent, principally because a projected 8.6 per cent rise in visits from Mexico more than offsets expected falls of 6.5 per cent from Canada and 3.8 per cent from overseas markets. These are California-wide forecasts, not measured Los Angeles results.

Canada’s changing habits merit attention. Statistics Canada says Canadian residents made 5.5 million trips involving a visit to the United States in the first quarter of 2026, down 10.6 per cent from the previous year. Trips involving overseas destinations rose 6.2 per cent to 4.6 million.

The temptation is to blame one political quarrel or another for everything. The statistics don’t establish a single cause, and sensible journalism shouldn’t manufacture one. They do establish that travellers are changing their behaviour. Destinations that sell yesterday’s assumptions may find tomorrow’s rooms empty.

A sporting spectacle is not the same thing as a tourism windfall

Los Angeles has at least demonstrated that it can draw a crowd. During the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the Inglewood stadium hosted eight matches attended by a combined 561,656 spectators, filling 99.6 per cent of available capacity, according to FIFA.

Impressive? Certainly. But stadium attendance is not the same as 561,656 additional tourists. Some spectators attended more than once; others lived nearby. The difference matters when turning sporting excitement into claims about visitor growth.

The next act is already scheduled. Super Bowl LXI comes to SoFi Stadium on 14 February 2027, followed by the Olympic Games from 14–30 July 2028 and Paralympic Games from 15–27 August 2028.

For hotels, tour operators and event specialists, these are handsome opportunities. They also invite you to confront soaring demand, complicated transfers, and the age-old problem of discovering that the hotel advertised as ‘conveniently located’ is convenient mainly for someone with a helicopter.

The clever operators will sell more than a seat at a match. They will sell the neighbourhood restaurant worth finding, a quieter afternoon on the coast, a gallery worth several hours and a few extra nights that make a long-haul flight worthwhile.

The pitch has fresh cultural substance behind it. George Lucas and Mellody Hobson founded the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which opened in Exposition Park on 22 September 2026. Its collections span illustration, cinema, comics, and visual storytelling. Los Angeles has never lacked stories; now it has another interesting place to examine how they are told.

LAX’s magnificent train and the reality of getting there

Which brings us back to those trains.

As of 16 October, LAX says SkyLink is still being tested and certified. It is not open to passengers. Travellers must continue to use the existing shuttle and ground-transport arrangements until the airport formally announces an opening.

SkyLink is designed to connect the terminals with parking, the rental-car centre and public transport. Eventually, it could make airport transfers notably easier. ‘Eventually’, however, has never reassured a family standing outside an arrivals hall with three suitcases and a tired child.

This is where the travel adviser earns the commission. Immigration time, terminal changes, separate tickets, and hotel location matter enormously. One carefully checked connection is worth a dozen breathless promises about seamless travel.

The Pacific is not merely the water between two airports

For decades, long-haul sellers have treated the ocean as something to cross on the way to somewhere else. That is an odd approach to a region containing some of the world’s most appealing island destinations.

Fiji Airways links Nadi and Los Angeles, while Air Tahiti Nui flies non-stop between Los Angeles and Papeete. These routes open up options for combining city stays with Pacific holidays. That said, they don’t mean every combination is cheap, convenient, or available on the same ticket.

An example of this commercial thinking appeared in July, when Los Angeles Tourism and Fiji Airways hosted Australian lifestyle media for a wellness-focused visit to Los Angeles. The idea was clever: sell California’s beaches, hiking, spas and health-conscious restaurants to passengers who could reach the city through Fiji.

Still, a media visit proves a marketing partnership, not a surge in bookings. Operators need to establish what travellers will actually pay for, whether fares permit a worthwhile stopover, and who takes responsibility when separate flight arrangements go wrong.

Nor should the Pacific be reduced to turquoise water and a resort buffet. Fiji and French Polynesia have distinct cultures, communities and environments. A thoughtfully planned journey can support local guides and businesses. A clumsy package may simply drop visitors off, take their money, and leave them with little understanding of where they have been.

Cook Islands: small numbers, sizeable opportunities

Nowhere is that distinction more important than in the Cook Islands. Here, tourism scales in the thousands rather than California’s millions, and that is part of both the appeal and the responsibility.

The Cook Islands Statistics Office counted 19,163 visitors in August 2026. New Zealand supplied 65.3 per cent, Australia 24.3 per cent, Europe 5.3 per cent and the United States 2.8 per cent. Arrivals were 11.8 per cent below July, a month-on-month change during the winter peak, not proof of a collapsing annual market.

Australian access has improved. Jetstar began Sydney–Rarotonga flights in June 2023, and its first Brisbane–Rarotonga service departed on 18 May 2026, launching a three-times-weekly route. It is the kind of improvement that matters more to customers than another adjective in a tourism slogan: fewer connections, a clearer journey and more time on holiday.

There is plenty to sell beyond the transfer. Rarotonga combines its lagoon and green interior with local markets and island hospitality. Aitutaki offers a different rhythm and its own celebrated lagoon. Both deserve to be sold as places with residents and traditions, not props for somebody else’s social-media account.

For North American clients, Air Tahiti Nui markets Cook Islands connections via Papeete. That is a connecting itinerary, not a non-stop flight from Los Angeles to Rarotonga. Agents must check operating days, interline arrangements and the practical consequences of a missed connection before calling it a convenient option.

What the travel trade should sell and what it should stop selling

The temptation is to place Los Angeles, Fiji, Tahiti and the Cook Islands on a single glossy page, add a sunset and declare a new ‘must-do’ circuit. A beautiful picture may attract attention. It cannot fix an awkward timetable.

A Californian sporting break followed by Fiji could work wonderfully for a family with time to spare. Los Angeles and Tahiti might suit a couple seeking culture followed by quieter days. Some customers, meanwhile, would be happier staying in one place for longer. There is no shame in selling the simpler holiday when it is plainly the better one.

Travel advisers should establish the true door-to-door journey, not just the hours in the air. They should ask about baggage through-checking, overnight stops, insurance and the risks of independently ticketed flights. Australians transiting the United States also need to understand US entry requirements, including the Visa Waiver Program and ESTA where applicable. An approved ESTA is not a promise of admission.

Tourism boards and airlines also play a role. Trade-ready packages, honest connection information, realistic pricing and authentic local experiences are more persuasive than vague talk of transformation.

The next stage of Pacific tourism will not be won by the destination with the loudest brochure. It will be won by those who make the journey desirable, workable, and worth the cost, while leaving the places visited better off for the attention.

Los Angeles, naturally, can provide the lights, the cameras and the spectacle. The Pacific can supply the restorative final act. The travel industry just has to write a believable script, sell the right seats, and make sure the audience gets there.

Preferably without having to watch their airport train go past.