Press Releases
View All Press Releases| WTM | 17 Nov 2009 |
Gay travellers want security
A session at World Travel Market, the premier global event for the travel industry, has offered an insight into how the business can take advantage of gay and lesbian travel sector.
Ian Johnson, founder and CEO of consultancy OutNow, said that the annual spending power of the gay and lesbian community in the UK is around £80 billion.
Research carried out in 2007 found that the gay and lesbian community spent £4.7bn on travel. And in 2008, research into civil partnerships found that gay and lesbian honeymoons are worth nearly £50m a year in the UK alone.
Johnson referred to research which said that “safety, structure and a welcoming attitude” we invariably among the top three requirements for gay and lesbian travellers.
Jeanette Schuchmann, deputy director of the German National Tourist Office, claimed that its Gay Germany campaign was one of the first to use guerrilla marketing, having recognised the importance internet when the campaign launched in 2004.
In 2009 the campaign went exclusively online. For 2010, the focus will be on securing commercial partners and getting a booking engine onto the site.
Another speaker, Yaniv Waizman, the tourism advisor to the mayor of Tel Aviv, pointed out how important world of mouth was in establishing a destination’s reputation. Research into perceptions about Israel as a gay-friendly destination showed people who knew someone who had visited the city were 500% more likely to visit than those who didn’t.
On the back of this research, its campaign for last year’s Tel Aviv Pride used local gay ambassadors and told them “to bring your friends”.
Johnson also suggested that travel firms which had an equality and diversity policy in place could gain a competitive advantage. Seven out of ten gay and lesbian travellers said they would prefer to buy their holiday from a business which was non-discriminatory.-ends-
About World Travel Market
World Travel Market, the premier global event for the travel industry, is the must-attend four-day business-to-business exhibition for the worldwide travel and tourism industry.
Almost 50,000 senior travel industry professionals, government ministers and international press, embark on London’s ExCeL Centre every November to network, negotiate and discover the latest industry opinion and trends at WTM.
WTM, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2009, is the event where the travel industry conducts and concludes its deals.
WTM is owned by the world’s leading events organiser Reed Exhibitions (RE), which organises a portfolio of other travel industry events including Arabian Travel Market and International Luxury Travel Market.
RE holds more than 500 events in 38 countries throughout Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific covering 47 industry sectors including aerospace & aviation, healthcare, manufacturing and sport & recreation.
In 2008 RE, part of the Reed Elsevier group, brought together more than six million industry professionals from around the world generating billions of dollars in business.
