1. GPWT is a bigger market than GLBT
Tourism marketers often list the "Gay Travel" market alongside ski, culinary and spa as a consumer segment to be targeted through specialized marketing campaigns.  But when I've spoken with clients about the Gay Travel market, I've always had the sneaking suspicion that there are actually two segments within Gay Travel: Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgendered Travel (GLBTT) and Gay People Who Travel (GPWT).

The first group, GLBTT, are most often found in places and events where they can enjoy a trip surrounded by fellow GLBTTers.  Think of Gay Pride festivals, Gay cruises and events like Key West's Gay Spring Break.  In this regard, GLBTT is like any other travel segment defined by their shared interest in a specific travel experience.  Targeting GLBTT to visit destinations for Gay-themed events is an obvious and relatively easy task.

2. GPWT are pretty much the same as SPWT (Straight People Who Travel)
Where tourism marketers often stumble is in targeting the second group, Gay People Who Travel (GPWT).  And the mistake they make is to create a "Gay" version of their mass advertising promoting not a Gay event but the destination as a whole.  The mass advertising campaign showing vibrant nightlife and great cuisine becomes a leather bar.  The focal point of the city's world-class cuisine becomes a close-up of two men holding hands.  And all of that makes about as much sense as targeting Irish travelers by showing people with red hair in your ads.

GPWT don't necessarily travel to be gay, and they don't necessarily travel to only hang around with other gay people.  They travel to experience the same things as everyone else and have interests equally as varied as the traveling public as a whole.  And in many cases, they have about as much interest in being singled out as "gay" for no reason while on vacation as I have in being singled out as Presbyterian.

In a country like Canada, with its reputation for being not just gay-friendly but actively gay-who-cares-let's-have-a-beer, the very idea of being invited to visit on the basis of your sexual preference seems to run counter to what the nation stands for.  A country like Canada, if it's to be true to its reputation, would market to GPWT using the same campaign and the same imagery it uses to reach everyone else.

Britain learned this lesson after recent research revealed that GPWT viewed a recent "Gay" campaign as "camp and too obsessed with sex and stereotypes."

3. You already have a Gay campaign
Some jurisdictions (most often for political reasons) like to fool themselves into believing they are not targeting the Gay community with their tourism campaigns.

But the media channels most often used by the travel industry are widely read by GPWT.  In fact (and I've been too preoccupied watching CSI to run the PMB data on this) a few of my friends assure me that the most effective way to reach the higher end of the Gay market is to buy the same media you would use to reach the high end of the general population.  And yet tourism officials seem to isolate their "Gay" campaigns to 'Gay" publications.

If a destination is really intent of proving its gay "cred", wouldn't it make more sense to place their Gay campaign in a magazine like Conde Nast Traveler or Travel & Leisure?  It might have a rather polarizing effect, but isn't that the point of good communications?  For a country like Canada, the folks who would be turned off by seeing that kind of campaign probably weren't rushing to visit the "liberal North" in the near future anyway.





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