Cities find lucrative
tourist market in gay travel
Pittsburgh is still
off the map, but it's working to join the trend
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Bonnie Weller, Philadelphia Inquirer
Henry David at Philadelphia's Gay Fest on Oct. 8. |
By Mackenzie
Carpenter post-gazette.com January 14, 2007
Pittsburgh -- Key West? Of
course. Provincetown, Mass.? A no-brainer.
But Philadelphia and Providence, R.I., are also listed as among the top 21 most
"gay-friendly" travel destinations in the United States, according to a recent
national survey by the Travel Industry Association.
Pittsburgh isn't there yet, although local tourism officials vow that will
change, as they join other cities -- from the Rust Belt to the Bible Belt -- in
seeking the increasingly lucrative gay and lesbian tourist dollar, estimated at
$64 billion last year.
It's a shift that represents not just increased marketing efforts by those
cities, but an increased tolerance of diversity in American culture, say
experts.
In the past, says Bill Gehr-man of Altus Group, a Philadelphia-based advertising
agency that crafted that city's much-praised gay tourism campaign, gays traveled
"to get away and be with people who were just like them, towns like Provincetown
or San Francisco that were purely gay."
Now, however, "more and more gay travelers want and are able to go to a
destination and enjoy the same things everyone else enjoys and feel more
welcome."
Still, he added, "You can have the greatest attractions in the world, but if
you're not known as being tolerant, it just goes down the drain."
That's where the poll by the Travel Industry Association comes in, which the
group calls the first comprehensive study done on this subject.
Respondents identifying themselves as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender (GLBT)
were asked to identify places -- from a list of 75 metropolitan areas, in the
United States and Canada -- where they'd like to travel.
The three most important factors for this group were: whether a place is
safe and free from intimidation and threats; whether it is culturally welcoming
and known to support diversity and GLBT civil rights; and word of mouth.
By far, though, the "friendliness" quotient came first, with nearly half of
those surveyed citing its importance, said Bob Witeck, CEO of Witeck-Combs
Communications, which co-sponsored the survey.
"It's about whether you can hold your partner's hand in public, whether you're
safe from harassment or physical violence," he said.
Pittsburgh wasn't included on the survey's list of places for respondents to
choose from, Mr. Witeck said, mainly due to space considerations, although other
cities that have more aggressively wooed gay tourists may have earned a spot on
the list for that reason.
How does a city become gay-friendly, anyway?
The answer seems to be as much about culture and history as it is about
marketing. San Francisco's reputation as a gay mecca has its roots in the
1849 Gold Rush, according to Laurie Armstrong, of the city's Visitor Information
Center.
"Thousands of people, mostly men, came here to seek their fortunes," she noted.
"What kind of people would do that? Risk takers, we know, and people who
didn't have anything to leave behind, who were different and who came to
California to make a new start."
While San Francisco's gays were as closeted as others in America during much of
its history, the election of openly gay Harvey Milk as the city's supervisor in
the 1970s encouraged others to come out. By the 1980s, a "gay-friendly"
travel destination was born, with gay travel agents, tour operators and gay
media helping to promote it.
"Can you become a gay-friendly destination overnight? I doubt it," Ms.
Armstrong said. But pointing out things that attract gay visitors, from
cultural activities to sports, -- "I can't tell you how many gay guys you see
cheering at football games here" -- will go a long way to attract the gay
visitor.
Other, more surprising places are vying for gay tourists, such as Bloomington,
Ind., and Dallas in the heart of the Bible Belt.
"I know a lot people may be surprised," said Philip Jones of the Dallas
Convention and Visitors Bureau, "but there's a whole movement in the travel
industry reaching out to this market, and we wanted to make sure Dallas was
well-positioned to take advantage of it."
Too many people had an image of this city of 1.2 million from the popular 1970s
television potboiler "Dallas," he added, "where people with lots of money and
big hair sat around drinking margaritas."
Besides having the sixth-largest GLBT population in the country, Dallas is also
the site of the largest GLBT church in the country. There is an openly gay
city council member, the city's elected sheriff is a lesbian, and there is a
nationally recognized gay neighborhood, Oak Lawn.
Faced with the challenge of rebranding itself, the bureau hired a full-time
staff person to position Dallas as a gay-friendly destination, and launched a
Web site,
www.glbtdallas.com/index2.php, specifically targeted at gays.
It hosted "fan" tours and gay-themed conventions and cultivated important GLBT
travel publications and made sure that more than 20 hotels are listed as
"gay-friendly" on a national database run by Travel Alternatives Group,
www.tagapproved.com/tag-accommodations.cfm, which identifies accommodations
"based not only on their desire for gay travel revenues," according to the Web
site, "but on their employment policies, services, and support returned to the
gay community."
But the city that has most aggressively pursued the gay travel dollar is
Philadelphia, said Jerry McHugh, manager of market research for San
Francisco-based Community Marketing, one of the top GLBT tourism marketing firms
in the country.
"No city has done it as vigorously, and that includes San Francisco," said Mr.
McHugh, citing a highly creative advertising campaign that skillfully wove the
city's historical attractions and its nightlife into a compelling package.
"Philadelphia was the first city to actually do a television ad aimed at the gay
community," he said.
The ads by Philadelphia-based Althus Group "didn't use drag queens or muscle
boys," but, rather, featured local icons such as Betsy Ross and Benjamin
Franklin. Instead of sewing the American flag, she worked on the rainbow
flag, the symbol of the GLBT movement, and he flew a kite in rainbow colors to
test electricity. The ad campaign's tagline was "Get your history straight
and your nightlife gay."
While Altus Group also published Pittsburgh's City "Navigaytor," which was
unveiled here in 2005, a brochure alone isn't going to have the same kind of
impact, Mr. McHugh says. "You can have the greatest ad agency in the world
but if the budget and political will isn't there, it won't happen."
"It's about leadership," added Mr. Witeck. "A city can't whisper
'welcome.' You have to say it out loud. The cities who say it out
loud and get it are the ones that win."
Beverly Morrow Jones, a spokeswoman for Visit Pittsburgh, the city's tourism
information bureau, says the city is prepared to do that.
"VisitPittsburgh is very interested in pursuing the GLBT marketplace," she said.
"We've found tremendous acceptance from that community, who are amazed, once
they visit, about how wonderful Pittsburgh is and how welcoming we are."
The "Navigaytor" has been well-received since its launch two years ago, added
Mr. Gehrman of Altus Group. The 20-page brochure includes ads from the
Pittsburgh Opera, the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium, the Carnegie Museums of
Pittsburgh and the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, and several inns and
bed-and-breakfasts on the city's North Side.
"We get more pro-active calls from people about Pittsburgh's guide than any of
the others we've produced, maybe because people are so surprised and delighted
to see it," he said.
Pittsburgh's image also has gotten a boost in the gay community by serving as
the setting for the Showtime series about gay life, "Queer as Folk."
Even so, the city's reputation as "gay-friendly" remains relatively muted, says
Mr. McHugh. "You're lagging a little behind other destinations," he said.
"Like the TIA survey indicates, Pittsburgh doesn't immediately come to mind when
I'm thinking about gay-friendly destinations. Although I love your
airport," he laughed.
Indeed, Travel Alternative Group's Web site lists only two hotels in Pittsburgh
-- the Westin Convention Center, Downtown, and the Best Western in Green Tree --
as "gay-friendly," even though many more Pittsburgh hotels do list themselves in
the city's gay travel guide, and many may simply not be aware of the TAG
website.
Mr. Gehrman acknowledged there's more to do.
"The Navigaytor is a stepping stone," he said, noting that more marketing
initiatives are afoot.
"I divide travel destinations for gays into three categories," he added.
"There are those that have the 'gay product,' the nightlife, the gay-specific
stores and the gay infrastructure, like San Francisco, in addition to all the
other attractions. Then there are those cities that, no matter how much
they may want to put their attractions out there, are just not ready for the gay
tourist.
"Then there are the cities that have the attractions and the gay product, but
they're not known. Pittsburgh is one of those cities. It may not be
high on the radar, but it has what it takes to attract the gay tourist."
With its great neighborhoods in Shadyside, Lawrenceville and the North Side,
with its gay-owned and gay-friendly shops, restaurants, inns and
bed-and-breakfasts, "Pittsburgh is definitely ready to take the next step" to
attract gay tourists, he said.
"Just watch."
(Mackenzie Carpenter can be reached at
mcarpenter@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1949.)
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