"While Helen will be missed, we are pleased to add Laurie's skills and eighteen years of marketing communications experience to our highly successful team," said John A. Marks, President of the SFCVB.

Armstrong was most recently Vice President, Communications, at the Palm Springs Desert Resorts Convention & Visitors Bureau. In this capacity, she supervised all public relations, advertising, publications and location filming programs for the Bureau, representing eight cities in Riverside County in southern California.

In her new post at the SFCVB, Armstrong will oversee the local, domestic and international public relations efforts of the world's most popular visitor destination, generating publicity world-wide for San Francisco as a leisure, business and convention travel destination, and communicating to the local community about the programs of the Bureau and the impact of tourism on the local economy.

Prior to joining the Palm Springs Desert Resorts Bureau in March 1993, Armstrong was Director of Public Relations with the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority.

She has also had communications positions with the Los Angeles Registry Hotel, Marineland and the MGM Grand Hotel-Reno.

Armstrong has been a member of the Society of American Travel Writers since 1986. She holds a degree in Mass Communication from the University of California at Davis.

The San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau is a private, non-profit organization whose mission is to market the City as a leisure, convention and business travel destination. With more than 2,200 members, the SFCVB is the largest membership based tourism promotion agency in the country and the City's largest business association. Tourism, San Francisco's largest revenue-generating industry, generates in excess of 55 billion annually for the local economy.

For a visitor package including a map, lodging guide and San Francisco Book, send $3 to the Visitor Information Center, San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau, P.O. Box 429097, San Francisco, CA 94142-9097, or call 415-974-6900. For hotel reservations, call the city-wide hotel reservation system, 1-888-STAY-N-SF (782-9673). Special promotional programs are available through this number.  Or surf the official San Francisco visitor web site at http://www.sfvisitor.org.