Business: Gays view Tampa as unfriendly

Gay and lesbian travelers in the United States consider the Sunshine State a safe and welcoming place to visit. As long as they're talking about South Florida.

Key West and the Florida Keys ranked as the second-most gay-friendly destination in the nation after San Francisco, according to a national travel survey released Wednesday.

Miami and Fort Lauderdale also scored high. But Tampa and cities outside South Florida lagged far behind. Only one in 10 people surveyed called Tampa gay-friendly.

Travel-related companies and many tourist destinations are targeting 16-million gay adults, who have $641-billion in cash to spend after taxes, say Witeck-Combs Communications and Harris Interactive, which co-sponsored the survey.

Pinellas County will launch an advertising campaign targeting gay tourists this winter. But after objections from some public officials, marketers decided not to promote Pinellas in ads as "gay-friendly."

The online survey conducted for the Travel Industry Association in September asked about 2,000 gays how they shopped for vacations.

Nearly half said it's important that a destination is gay-friendly. Most defined that as a safe place where they could hold a partner's hand in public without harassment or threats of violence.

"Gay-friendliness is frequently mentioned as a litmus test," said Bob Witeck of Witeck-Combs Communications. "They are not looking for special treatment ... but consideration and equal respect given to all customers."

The survey also asked which of 59 cities, including seven in Florida, participants considered gay-friendly.

Fifty-seven percent said they felt comfortable visiting Key West and the Florida Keys. Miami came in seventh, with Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville further down the list.

"The top four all have had aggressive marketing programs for some time to the gay and lesbian market," said Carole Ketterhagen, executive director of the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Tampa's tourism marketing agency has never bought advertising or gone to trade shows to attract gay visitors. Last year, the city drew the ire of activists nationally when the Hillsborough County Commission voted to ban government recognition of gay pride events.

Pinellas is preparing its first advertising campaign to promote the county in gay-oriented Web sites and publications. The ads will use the county's vanilla "Florida's Beach" campaign and not portray gay couples "at this time," said Ketterhagen.

Tourism markets are increasingly moving into "niche marketing" with messages tailored to specific audiences.

Mass marketing often doesn't appeal to any demographic, rich or middle class, African-Americans or Hispanics, said Barry Pitegoff, research director for Visit Florida, the state tourism marketing agency.

"Like Wayne Gretsky said - we like to skate where the puck's going to be," he said.

More than 2,000 gays were asked to pick which among 59 cities considered gay friendly.

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by Jermaine	04/19/07 07:07 PM
I am a gay male 31 yrs old majority of my fathers side of the family resides in Tampa my mother side of the family resides in Wauchula a small town 70 miles south central out of Tampa I visted Tampa's Gay scene they can party TAMPA OPEN UP

by vic	12/08/06 06:21 AM
Please. St.Pete certainly is "a safe place where they could hold a partner's hand in public without harassment or threats of violence." My gay Grandfather lived here the majority of his adult life,before being gay was accepted.He loved it here.

by Jay	12/07/06 09:48 PM
I think the Tampa Bay area is STILL gay and friendly, but it's not so apparent now that tourism isn't our ONLY business. But go to the beaches and you'll see plenty of happy people, and they're really quite friendly, too.

by Freckles	12/07/06 06:23 PM
Orlando is in the bottom 5 in my opinion becasue it has been geared towards families with children and Tampa in my opion is still very much a "Good OL boys " town so I can see it not being gay freindly .The KKK still rallies up here in Centeral Fla.

by Frackles	12/07/06 06:19 PM
South Florida is gay friendly so I was surprised that other than the Keys that it was listed in the bottom 5 .I am not gay but have no problem with them one way or another . I do not find it surprising that Tampa or Orlando are not gay friendly .

by JamesPeter	12/07/06 06:14 PM
There is a lot of tourist dollars to be made from the gay population. The Bay area needs to market it.

by Linda	12/07/06 04:32 PM
Gays are humans to-they have hearts like us and feelings like us. If thats what they believe in let them be. I have never met a gay person that wasn't nice, considerate and fun to be around!!!!Unlike the un-gays in the world today!!!

by Catt	12/07/06 04:04 PM
I don't want aanyone to care about my sexual orientation is, but until I have the same rights as my parents and siblings, I will continue to be a very loud voice!

by Danielle	12/07/06 03:19 PM
Why do gay people think everyone cares about what their sexual orientation is?? We don't. If you want to live here fine, if you don't, don't! Just shut-up already about your sexual orientation.

by Elaine	12/07/06 11:12 AM
There are good & bad in every group. I say 99% of gay/lesbian are great, resposible people. Hm, what % of shootings, robberies etc are committed by gays? Why do Gays feel they have to be so publicly labels in the first place? I don't care who is gay?

by marissa	12/07/06 10:14 AM
wow. i really thought we'd passed all that narrowminded bigotry. can't wait for the day when americans are just treated like americans...not gay americans and straight americans. oh, and...gays have loads of cash to spend!

by Jack	12/07/06 10:07 AM
The gays have $$$. At least they take pride in what they have, and not have the area looking like "White Trash". People need to be more open to the idea. After all, it's not the 50's, it's 2006!!

by Jeffrey	12/07/06 10:05 AM
I feel that we need to heighten the gay community. It is sad how so many individuals can be close minded. Most not realizing that the gay community are the ones responsible for the revitalization of most "RUN DOWN" areas. Take a look at KENWOOD!!

by Paul	12/07/06 09:49 AM
Well, once again St Pete is lumped in with Tampa. St Pete is quite different than Tampa, thankfully. I personally despise any government that would select to point out and remove recognition of any group. How barbaric. I say welcome to everyone.

by Mark	12/07/06 09:42 AM
I see no reason for any community to be "unfriendly" to gays, or to any one else. I think it would be fare for the "pulic officials" to make clear which side of the fence the they stand. Then let us exercise the power of our vote.

by Mark	12/07/06 09:37 AM
I am a gay male living in NYC for the past 18 years, originally from St. Petersburg. I think the gay community should know which "public officials" chose not to call Pinellas county gay freindly, and then use their power of vote to remove them.

by susan	12/07/06 09:05 AM
Hard to imagine that there are still so many teeny, tiny minds in our midst.

by Gillnetter	12/07/06 08:59 AM
I really dont care what the gays opinions are and we dont need to be gay friendly.We dont need our kids growing up being taught that being gay is cool or even acceptable.So go somewhere else with your gay crap,Tampa's already overpopulated without u.

by John	12/07/06 08:53 AM
By all means we should certainly take whatever steps are necessary to attract more homosexuals to our area. God knows we don't have nearly enough here as it is. Let's expend countless millions to formulate a plan and then implement it.

by Robert	12/07/06 08:52 AM
Good! Let them stay away,Gay tourists, gay TV commercials,Gay Parades,Gay Politicians,How Stupid! There are much more to be concerned with than the Gays,They are of least importance.

by Carl	12/07/06 07:30 AM
This article was disgusting. I do not care who is who or what they are. How does anyone know someone is gay unless they wave a flag and want attention. This a typical story promoted by the news medis.

by Jan	12/07/06 07:19 AM
My partner and I bought a nice condo in Dunedin in 2002 and found the town very gay-friendly. Other gay/lesbian retirees are on the way from the cold North. We have $ and we have families.