AS THE economic crisis deepens and hotels stretch the tourist net ever wider to scoop up precious revenue, gay tourism is a very lucrative sector that looks increasingly attractive.
“In these difficult times, hoteliers need to look at every market. There is talk of agrotourism or sports tourism – well, gay tourism is another market segment, and every market is worth looking at,” one hotelier, who preferred not to be named, told the Sunday Mail.
Gay tourists are known to be big spenders with some recent studies indicating that gay tourists spend 100-150 per cent more on holidays than non-gay tourists. The tourism sector in Greece is already reaping the benefit of addressing this market segment, to the tune of €1.5 billion per year.
According to Community Marketing Inc. (CMI), a San Francisco-based company specialising in gay tourism, a reputation for gay-friendliness is one of the top three criteria for gays and lesbians when choosing vacation destinations. Travel analysts say that a destination will win the reputation of being gay-friendly if the general population’s attitude is positive.
The hotelier said that Cyprus is not unfriendly to gays and lesbians, though he admitted “society here is not necessarily as open as in some countries”. There are bars and clubs that are gay-friendly rather than exclusively gay, but “some destinations, like Mykonos, have a much stronger profile as being gay-friendly”, he added.
“The Cyprus Tourism Organisation should be looking at this. Whether they will market Cyprus as being gay-friendly is up to them. It is not easy to introduce a new market segment to a society that is fairly conservative when it comes to new things.”
Other travel trends in gay tourism identified by CMI include: price, which is the top motivator for selecting a hotel, a positive internet review of the hotel property, and location near attractions. According to survey data, there is no great difference between what gay tourists and non-gay tourists enjoy doing while on vacation: top of the list are going to a popular restaurant, visiting popular mainstream tourist attractions, visiting museums and shopping.
Gay tourism is one of the more lucrative market segments worldwide and is growing faster than longer-established segments. A study published last year by CMI said that 30 per cent of gay travellers in the US planned a visit to Europe in 2008.
The official website of the French government’s Tourist Office, www.franceguide.com, already includes a page on gay tourism, with a number of links to regional tourism office websites and others sites.
It is not just tourism promotion bodies that are dedicating resources to this market. Large companies like the Hyatt Hotels Corporation and Travelocity, the second-largest online travel agency, regularly attend the annual International Conference on Gay & Lesbian Tourism, which in the past has been sponsored by Quantas and American Airlines, among others.
The internet is certainly the primary marketing tool for the gay tourism market. There is already a large number of specialised internet portals and sites available to the gay tourist. One of these is www.gaylifetravel.com, which aims to recommend “only the very best gay-friendly hotels”.
This particular site already lists seven four-star and five-star hotels in Limassol, Paphos and Larnaca, including the Londa Hotel in Limassol. General Manager Jochen Niemann told the Sunday Mail that his typical leisure guest is a younger than average high-spender from the UK, Central Europe and Russia who prefers the “lifestyle” or boutique-type hotel.
He said: “There was an initiative a year or so ago by a UK operator to issue a brochure for the gay tourism market. We did not hesitate to participate, without marketing ourselves explicitly as being gay-friendly.”
Like most hotels in Cyprus, the Londa has seen a drop in bookings from the UK. Niemann said that the government’s stimulus package, and specifically the reduction in VAT and municipal taxes, had helped towards offering lower prices to the UK market. However, due to its short lead-time for bookings, the hotel has also benefited from potential tourists’ “wait-and see” response to the economic crisis. “Actually, we have had the best January and February ever,” he said.
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