New Outer Banks Gay Tourism Site

Someone in this overall region has finally awakened to the fact that there is money to be made in soliciting the LGBT tourism dollar. No it's not Williamsburg, Norfolk or Virginia Beach. It's the Outer Banks of North Carolina which has a group running a gay tourism web page that promotes the Outer Banks as a destination for LGBT travelers. I have loved the Outer Banks for many years and a group of us still will go down for a weekend in the fall and/or the spring. If marketed correctly, the Outer Banks could be a great gay travel destination. The key will be whether enough hotels and inns get on board in terms of being gay friendly. In my view, TheGayOBX.com is a concept that other cities in Hampton Roads should embrace if they want to attract one of the fastest growing travel segment - and a segment of the tourism market that has shown itself to be more recession resistant than the quasi-blue collar family market that Virginia Beach foolishly targets to the exclusion of almost all else. Here are some highlights from the Virginian Pilot:
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If you welcome them, they will come to the Outer Banks, said a creator of a new gay tourism website. "The response has been tremendous from locals and people who have stumbled on it," said David Miller, a freelance lighting designer from Manteo who helped design the site.
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On the East Coast, vacationing gay people flock to Provincetown, Rehoboth Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Key West, Miller said. "Why not have them come here and spend their money here?" he said.
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Miller, 47, said that he and his business partner decided last summer that the Outer Banks had a lot to gain by being more gay-friendly. Since the website was launched in November, there have been more than 10,000 hits, he said. The majority of inquiries have come from the Washington, D.C., and Pittsburgh areas.
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Lee Nettles, the managing director of the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, said that as far as he knows there has not been a concerted outreach by the bureau to the gay tourist. But he said that the Outer Banks appeals to many niches, and he welcomes Miller's effort to promote the destination to gays. "I know that from things I've read in the industry, it's a lucrative demographic," Nettles said. "Gay visitors are frequent travelers."
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A few Outer Banks businesses have begun sponsoring gay-friendly cruises, kayak trips and movie nights, and Miller said he is confident that business support will continue to grow. TheGayOBX also sponsored its first nightclub entertainment event last month in Nags Head at Kelly's Outer Banks Restaurant & Tavern, the "Sinfully Delicious Sundae Show."