Tourism Poria, Yaniv. \"Assessing Gay

Tourism

Poria, Yaniv. "Assessing Gay Men and Lesbian Women's Hotel Experiences: An Exploratory Study of Sexual Orientation in the Travel Industry." Journal of Travel Research, Vol 44, No. 3, 327-334 (2006).

This study was intended to gain a better insight into the hotel choice and use by the gay and lesbian population, an important niche population of the travel industry as a whole. According to the results, the main factor of importance in choosing a hotel is that these people feel accepted and welcome when their sexual orientation is known. In other words, gay men and lesbian women expect to be treated in the same manner as heterosexuals are treated when using a hotel and its services. The common negatives cited relate to the behavior of the hotel staff, various hotel attributes, and the general environment of the hotel.

This article is of importance to those who are involved in the travel industry because the survey's findings may assist in shaping service provisions for and service delivery to the lesbian and gay population. The gay and lesbian population is one of the largest traveling groups in society and thus attracting their business is essential. However, because of these negative factors, in all too many cases this population has simply set up their own network of hotels. The hotel industry must compete in order to break into this viable market.

I feel this article is important and interesting. It takes a simple question and looks to see what can be changed so hotels can attract a large traveling population. What is not much of a surprise is the response: that they simply want to be treated as any hotel guest expects to be treated. In other words, the key point of this article is one of customer services.

Parets, Robyn Taylor. "Marketing to Gay Community Can Pay Dividens to Hotels." Hotel & Motel Management. 7 May 2005.

According to this article, "marketing to the gay and lesbian community is a priority for many hoteliers." The reason for this is that "positioning their brands within the gay and lesbian market can lead to big business." Big business refers to the fact that the gay and lesbian population accounted for over ten percent of all United States travelers in 2004 and spent over fifty-four million dollars on travel. Further, this population tends to travel more than other traveling populations because of "generally higher discretionary income(s) and more flexibility (in their) schedules." In summary, this article summarizes the topic best in saying: "(marketing to the gay and lesbian population) goes beyond making sense from a cultural standpoint. It makes sense from a business standpoint as well."

This article is of essence to the travel professional because it clearly lays out the economic and business facts pertaining to the need to market to the gay and lesbian population. Further, the article provides useful advice on how to market one's hotel to this population, such as by locating a hotel in an urban area and making it a trendy and stylish hotel with personality.

I feel this article is excellent. It does a great job at removing the political issues associated with this population and instead looks at it in a purely business sense. If you are in the hotel business you want to make money. Being an extremely competitive market, you always need to market towards new clients. Today, nothing makes more financial sense than marketing to the gay and lesbian population.

Hughes, Howard L. Pink Tourism: Holidays of Gay Men and Lesbians. New York: CAB International, 2006.

This book focuses on the world of gay and lesbian tourism from a business and marketing perspective. Its main purpose is to show how marketing can best be used in this field. It begins with an overview of the nature of homosexuality and how these issues effect tourism and hotel marketing. The chapter on accommodation provisions specifically focuses on how hotel managers can market and provide desired services to this traveling niche.

This book, and this chapter particularly, is beneficial to the travel professional involved in the hotel industry because it serves as a step-by-step guide to how to run a successful marketing campaign aimed at attracting the gay and lesbian population. Further, it provides sound advice on how to operate a hotel that caters to the needs of gay and lesbian travelers. Finally, the chapter also provides an in-depth discussion of how politics and other issues effect the gay and lesbian travel market and what a hotel manager can do to successful market to and serve all populations at the same time.

A found this chapter to be an interesting overview of niche marketing within the hotel industry. Although I felt many of the actual marketing strategies to be common sense, I did feel the political discussion was worth reading. Often times marketing to the gay and lesbian population seems like a Catch-22. On one hand you may gain a paying client, but on the other you run the risk of loosing another. This book does a good job at discussing how to successfully manage this delicate balance.