About LAtourist.com

Ownership - This website (LAtourist) is owned and operated by LAtourist.com, LLC in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

Mission - The first purpose of this website is to encourage you to choose Los Angeles as your vacation destination, and to aid in your travel planning. It is also hoped that website visitors will purchase vacation services through this website.

Contributors

• Tim Heffley - Owner, founder, producer and webmaster of this website. Author of all of the content between June 1999 until around May 2007. Since then, some articles and web development efforts have been contributed by these writers and designers:
• Patricia Guth (TravelTidbitsByPat.com) - Disneyland, Universal and Knott's articles, "LA with Kids" series, the Rose Parade, Santa Monica and others.
• Kristin Viola () - Most of the shopping articles (except for the Burbank area), plus the Beverly Hills series.
• Tracie Groh (TracieGroh.com) - LA Zoo, Forest Lawn and the Burbank articles.
• Masafumi Mori - Translation of a significant amount of content on LAtourist.com from English into Japanese. The results can be viewed at LAtourist.JP
• Inchol Solutions (Inchol.com) - contributed to the design of the web header, the footer and buttons.
• Zack Darling Creative Associates (zdca.com) - designed most of the header logo.

Support LAtourist - If you have found this website to be useful, please consider supporting LAtourist by reserving a hotel room or purchasing a travel product through this website. The rates here are the same as anywhere else, and lower in some cases.

How you can help:

• Reserve a Hotel Room through LAtourist: (http://LAtourist.com/Hotels)
• Purchase a Guided Tour through LAtourist: (http://LAtourist.com/GuidedTours)
• Purchase a Go Los Angeles Card though LAtourist: (http://LAtourist.com/GoLAcard)
• If you have a blog, please mention LAtourist.com
• If you have a website, please link to LAtourist.com
• If you know someone who wants to visit Los Angeles, please tell them about LAtourist.com!

About the Web Server

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 ® (Microsoft.com)
  This site originally ran on a Linux server, but Windows server has come a long way since the days of NT. Windows Server 2008 R2 is as powerful as almost any *nix server and (IMO) Windows is easier to manage. Plus, Windows servers offer the ability to run SQL Server 2008 Express (free database software).
  
  
• Cisco ASA 5505 Firewall (Cisco.com)
  Access to the web server is protected by a Cisco ASA 5505 firewall. There is not any sensitive data contained on the server, but the firewall adds a layer of protection to prevent vandals and spammers from changing the content of the website.
  
  
• GoDaddy.com Web Hosting (GoDaddy.com)
  LAtourist.com runs on GoDaddy's Windows 2008 dedicated server package, easily serving thousands of visitors per day with plenty of room to grow. If you have a serious website then don't mess around with shared hosting. To get started, GoDaddy's "virtual" dedicated server package is affordable and will accommodate at least 1000 visitors per day. That will help you get through the growing stages at minimal cost. When things get busy, GoDaddy's dedicated servers are the logical choice.
  
  
• BobParsons.Me (BobParsons.Me)
  Owner of GoDaddy.com, and entrepreneur extraordinaire. Bob Parsons' advice is as funny as it is motivational to people who do their best every day to make accomplishments and reach their goals. Bob's 16 Rules for Success in Business and Life in General are an inspiration for anyone pursuing their goals and dreams.
  
  LAtourist has been an ongoing project since June 1999. There's a long road behind and a long way to go, but I look forward to getting a little further ahead each day. I also look forward to Bob's vlog for some inspiration and a few laughs.

Rule #2 - Never Give Up

Demographics - According to Google Analytics, LAtourist.com has visitors from over 180 countries. Here are the top 10 countries represented by visitors of the LAtourist website:

1. 65.1% United States - California sends more visitors to this website than any other state.
   The top 5 states after that are (stats: May 2013):
• Texas
• New York
• Florida
• Illinois
• Arizona
2. 5.9% Australia
3. 4.7% Canada
4. 3.9% United Kingdom
5. 1.4% Germany
6. 1.4% India
7. 1.3% Mexico
8. 1.1% New Zealand
9. 1.0% France
10. 1.0% Brazil

Visitation - Unsurprisingly, web traffic is highest during the spring to summertime and lowest during the last few months of the year. Website visitation and pageview statistics are available to the public on Quantcast. The statistics are directly measured, which makes them far more reliable than Alexa or any other service that estimates web traffic.

Disclaimer - LAtourist is not associated with any government agency. This website is not sponsored by the City of Los Angeles. The official guide for Los Angeles is produced by the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board at discoverLosAngeles.com