D.C. sets sights on building international traveler niche. (Washington D.C.'s tourism industry)(Travel Focus)

Local groups grow marketing efforts to offset domestic doldrums

When the board of directors at the non-profit Washington Convention and Visitors Association (WCVA) met last year, they faced a problem -- the country's stalled economy had stalled domestic travel.

The board decided, said WCVA director of tourism Marie Tibor, to find new markets to fill the gap in the city's $2.8 billion tourism industry. What they found was a growing and lucrative niche in overseas visitors to Washington.

Tibor said she believed that three factors have fueled the overseas traveler market -- 38 percent of which come from the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan. First, the devaluation of the dollar, perhaps one indirect benefit of the recession, made every city in the U.S. "a bargain." The monumental expansion in international nonstop air service to Dulles Airport also helped, plus "the promotion and marketing that has taken place over the last five to six years," Tibor said.

She adds that "over the …