Today's Virginian Pilot carries yet another article on the sagging fortunes of Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, and other southeastern Virginia tourist destinations. Throughout the severe recession only one travel market segment has held constant - indeed it has grown. As I have written before, that is the LGBT travel market. One marketing research report described the gay travel segment as follows:*
Defining the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) consumers could result in a windfall for the mainstream travel industry, which has been experiencing a period of slowed growth. This consumer research confirms that the LGBT travelers are traveling often and spending more on travel. . . . . LGBT travelers reported spending 25% more on leisure travel than heterosexual travelers. Ninety-six percent of respondents had taken at least one short leisure trip in the previous year (compared to just 56% of mainstream travelers) and 98% of respondents indicated that a destination’s gay-friendly reputation influenced their decision to visit.
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And Virginia's reaction to this reality? It remains a thoroughly anti-gay state without employment protections for LGBT employees, restrictions on employers' ability to provide domestic partner benefits to employee spouses/partners, denies same sex relations ships any legal validity. In contrast to say Key West - which is amazingly LGBT friendly - or Vancouver which is hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics that likewise embraces diversity and tolerance, Virginia has little to offer LGBT tourists when it comes to a welcoming atmosphere. In fact, tourists flying into Norfolk International Airport are greeted on one concourse by a huge display for Pat Robertson's Regent University, complete with a roughly eight foot by five foot image of Robertson himself. How many gays are going to find that welcoming? None, in my estimation. Bigotry has its price and wonderful historic sites, beautiful hotels like the one at Williamsburg Winery, and great restaurants do not out weigh a poisonous legal atmosphere. Will Virginia ever learn this simple truth? Most likely no time soon as far too much of the state's laws remain dictated by the Family Foundation and similar extreme anti-gay organizations of which the state has far too many. Here are some highlights from the Pilot article:
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Williamsburg reported selling 660,000 general-admission tickets in 2009, down from about 707,000 in the previous year. That was a smaller decline than the 9 percent drop in 2008. . . . Colonial Williamsburg cut about 300 jobs in the past year and a half and now has a staff of 2,650, spokesman Tom Shrout said.
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Colonial Williamsburg is hardly the only tourist destination that reported financial declines for 2009. Two weeks ago, the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation reported that attendance fell more than 11 percent at Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center.
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Williamsburg reported selling 660,000 general-admission tickets in 2009, down from about 707,000 in the previous year. That was a smaller decline than the 9 percent drop in 2008. . . . Colonial Williamsburg cut about 300 jobs in the past year and a half and now has a staff of 2,650, spokesman Tom Shrout said.
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Colonial Williamsburg is hardly the only tourist destination that reported financial declines for 2009. Two weeks ago, the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation reported that attendance fell more than 11 percent at Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center.
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