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Talk of the Bay

Tourism survey to direct focus of marketing to gays

By STEVE HUETTEL
Published September 25, 2006

The state's tourism marketing agency wants to bring more gay and lesbian visitors to Florida.

As a first step, Visit Florida is helping pay for a nationwide survey on the travel preferences of gays and lesbians - and how they differ from those of heterosexual tourists.

Tourist destinations are increasingly targeting gay travelers, who have higher household incomes, take more trips and travel more often in off-season spring and fall months than other groups.

"This is too big and lucrative a travel market to ignore," says Kerri Post, vice president of new product development.

Visit Florida, the Florida Keys and Key West and the American Associ-ation for Nude Recreation are pitching in a total of $7,500 to include Florida-specific questions in the survey.

The online survey will include responses from about 2,000 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender travelers who have taken at least one leisure trip in the past 12 months.

A study conducted for Pinellas' tourism agency became a political hot potato by recommending the county market itself as "gay-friendly." Officials decided instead to place its standard "Florida's Beach" ads in gay publications.

Visit Florida will likely take a similar approach.

"We're not looking for the perception as gay-friendly," Post says. "We're welcoming everyone to Florida."

[Last modified September 25, 2006, 06:14:30]