LGBT Tourism Remains Resilient - A Lesson to Be Learned by Unfriendly Destinations

I have written before about the fact that while the recession has slammed many parts of the tourism industry, the LGBT market segment has remained resilient and, if there have been concessions made, it's been in the form of more regional travel in lieu of major trips. A new report by Community Marketing, Inc., ought to be a wake up call to every local tourism and convention bureau and should drive home the fact that advertising to the LGBT market is a wise business move that ought to trump the bigotry of the local Bible beaters. Indeed, not advertising to our community is almost a form of financial malfeasance. LGBT consumers are particularly receptive to targeted advertising and online booking opportunities. Here are highlights from the study which can be found here:

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Gay Men and Lesbian Booking Patterns. Gays and lesbians are primarily booking their travel directly via airline and hotel websites (56%) or through online travel agencies such as Travelocity or Orbitz (34%). Direct booking is significantly more important than web-based travel services, so for travel suppliers, developing relationships with the gay and lesbian community to encourage direct booking through your own website is extremely important. Travel suppliers and destinations having an LGBT “microsite” with dedicated content is a positive motivator for LGBT consumers.

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Recession-Influenced Travel Decreases . . . . Major markets, including New York City, San Francisco and Las Vegas saw only small leisure travel decreases, usually less than 5%, while medium sized cities, destinations that are geographically isolated, and some resort towns saw more significant decreases over 10%, and for some, over 20%.

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Staycations. Staycations were the only travel category to see an increase in 2009. When asked to specify how many regional drive vacations (i.e. including at least one night in a hotel) were taken, 66% indicated taking a longer regional drive vacation of more than two hours; 42% took a regional drive vacation where the drive was two hours or less; 14% took a trip where they stayed in a hotel in their own city. . . . with dedicated promotions this could be a way of filling hotel rooms during slower periods, especially if packaged with other local activities.

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Pride Events are Important. Unaffected by recessionary influences, nearly a quarter of the respondents reported traveling to another city and spending at least one night in a hotel to attend a Pride event; same as previous years. Nationally, Pride events continue to move millions of hotel nights in the Unites States, and Pride remains an important motivator for LGBT travelers under 35.

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Strength of Local Neighborhoods. Further confirming other recent research conducted by CMI, gays and lesbians tend to be especially interested in visiting city neighborhoods and experiencing local, non-chain restaurants. In fact, going to neighborhood restaurants and visiting the gay neighborhood were the top activities enjoyed by gays and lesbians when visiting a destination.