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LET'S GO
The country's most popular destinations for gay and lesbian travelers for
the 12 months ending August 2005:
1. New York City
2. Las Vegas
3. San Francisco
4. Los Angeles/W. Hollywood
5. Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 22%
6. Washington, D.C.
7. Chicago
8. Miami/South Beach
9. Palm Springs
10. San Diego
Source: Community Marketing Inc. |
Palm Springs has been on to something.
Since ushering out college-aged spring breakers
in the 1980s and welcoming gay tourists, the city has earned a gay-friendly
image and part of the estimated $65 billion spent nationwide by gay travelers
every year.
This weekend alone, the city expects 20,000 gay
men to gather for the annual White Party,
bringing $4 million with them.
That kind of spending has brought some unlikely
gay and lesbian suitors to the! table and given Palm Springs bigger-budgeted
competitors. Dallas just launched a gay marketing campaign this year, and
Waterloo, Iowa has shown interest in the gay demographic, two of several
regions across the country with either real or assumed conservative politics
that want to be known as "gay-friendly."
The Palm Springs Bureau of Tourism has $1.4
million to spend, giving better-funded regional tourism groups an advantage
when it comes to attracting gays and lesbians, said Michael Green, the
president of the Palm Springs Hospitality Association and owner of the
Triangle Inn gay resort.
"We have to take any competitor seriously ...
whether it's a Vegas, a Phoenix, Philadelphia," Green said.
But Dallas?
Even after Texas joined 19 other states last
year in banning gay marriage in the state's constitution, the Dallas
Convention and Visitors Bureau, through its Web site, event sponsorships and
promotions, has been lauding the city to gay and lesbian an travelers.
Steve Jolly, spokesman for the Dallas
Convention and Visitors Bureau, is unbowed. He points to the city's gay and
lesbian church, men's choral group and art scene as proof it, too, can be a
gay-friendly destination.
"Dallas is a very contemporary, liberal city
... different than what people assume ... It (Texas) is a red state, but
Dallas itself is just barely red," he assures.
Growing Trend
David Paisley, programs manager for Community
Marketing Inc., a San Francisco-based research firm focusing on gay tourists,
said the marketing trend has sped up recently but is nothing new. Some cities
realized gay and lesbian spending power several years ago and caught on to
what Palm Springs had been doing for decades.
"Gay or straight, the travel market loves
dual-income-no-kids," he said. And in some cases, the cities gain voters and
taxpayers.
"As more gays live in Palm Springs ... people
are coming! down to visit their friends," Paisley said.
Out of 20,516 Palm Springs households surveyed
for the 2000 Census, 832 were gay partners. The Census doesn't account for
single gay men or women.
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Amanda Lucidon / The Press-Enterprise
Ashley Escaip, 23, left, of San Diego, swims in
the pool
as she talks with Ellie Heagney, 24, center, of Los Angeles,
and Alexis Scott, 24, right, of San Diego at the Dinah Shore Girl Bar pool
party held at the Wyndham in Palm Springs. |
Political Tourism
Paisley said cities without the built-in
tolerant image of a Palm Springs now seeking his services for niche marketing
may need to do more than slap a "gay-friendly" label on advertisements.
"Politics becomes a little more important," he
said.
Aubrey Pruis with the Greater Phoenix Gay &
Lesbian Chamber of Commerce said persuading gays and lesbians to try out
Phoenix in the first place has been a hurdle.
"They're not sure how gay-friendly it is," he
said.
One reason could be recent efforts by groups
such as the Center for Arizona Policy to introduce a marriage amendment in the
state that would effectively ban gay unions.
Peter Gentala, general counsel for the group,
said a state amendment defining marriage shouldn't be misinterpreted as
anti-gay or not gay-friendly, especially considering 19 other states have
passed a similar rule.!
"We don't think the state or its political
subdivisions should be promoting a homosexual lifestyle," he said. "When you
can cast out a wide net to bring in tourists to the state, why would you cast
out a much smaller net?"
Politics matter if gay tourists feel
threatened, said Jill Pentrack, publisher of Destinations for Men magazine.
"There's factions everywhere ... that are
fighting against the quality of rights for gay folks," she said. But gay
tourists shouldn't necessarily be dissuaded from trying vacation destinations
that may seem less tolerant. "If we ignore them or we don't travel there
because of it, it harms the very community we belong to," she said of anti-gay
political movements.
"The convention and tourism bureaus see the
dollar signs in the gay and lesbian tourism market," said John Tanzella,
executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association.
They spend more, travel more and stay at nicer places, he said.
Even tourism officials with Waterloo -- the
birthplace of John Deere's farming-equipment empire -- have talked to Tanzella
about joining his group and marketing to gay and lesbian tourists. "You're not
going to get a bunch of gay guys from South Beach to go," he said. But gay
Europeans might be interested.
"They're intrigued by middle America," he said.
Palm Springs Pioneer
When 20,000 gay men crowd Palm Springs this
weekend, they won't be faced with politics, just a city that has spawned
businesses and services to cater to them.
The city's history as a haven for gay
lifestyles isn't new. Along with the typical Hollywood crowd, Palm Springs
became home to flamboyant piano man Liberace and a resort for closeted Rock
Hudson.
"They could come out here and be gay and
party," Green said. "Palm Springs has grown up with that ... it's had a
naughty edge to it," he said.
The annual White Party is on the h! eels of the
Dinah Shore weekend parties from Los Angeles-base! d event promoters GirlBar
and Club Skirts that brought thousands of lesbians to the desert at the end of
March.
"I really feel that between GirlBar and the
White Party ... we put Palm Springs on the map," said Sandy Sachs,
co-organizer of the annual GirlBar party. She's been approached by several
cities to move her Palm Springs gathering. Flattering she says, but nothing
she seriously considers.
"We're never leaving Palm Springs," she said.
But if they can't have her party, cities might
settle for Sachs' money when she travels.
"I'm just grateful that they've taken notice,"
she said. "Look at the gays and lesbians, they have money!"
