Anime Expo to stay in Los Angeles three more years

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The Anime Expo -- the world’s largest celebration of animation and Japanese comics -- will remain at the Los Angeles Convention Center for three more years, city officials announced Wednesday.

The convention, which opens its four-day gathering Thursday in the downtown convention center, will be held in the same location in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

The convention is expected to draw about 100,000 guests, generating about $24 million in revenue to the city.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will announce the decision Thursday at the convention center when he meets with Michael Lattanzio, president and executive officer of the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation, which hosts the convention.

‘Los Angeles is ground zero for entertainment,’ Anime Expo spokesman Jim Yeager said in explaining the decision by convention organizers to stay in the city. The Anime Expo, known as AX, has been held in Los Angeles the last two years. L.A. officials have been trying to keep conventions in town and draw new conventions to bolster the struggling tourism industry in the region.

-- Hugo Martin

(Photo: Dancers perform during the 2008 Anime Expo in Los Angeles. Credit: Anime Expo.)