Gay Travel To Little Britain

TOPICS: Commercial Closet. UK gay travel marketing. US gay tourism market. German gay travel market. Atlantis. RSVP gay cruise ships. Olivia. Rosie O'Donnell gay cruise tourism. New UK Telegraph gay tourism market news article. VisitBritain campaign going back to the drawing board after new research suggests US gay tourism travel market is not impressed by stereotypes in UK gay travel market campaigns to date.

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With our thanks to Michael Wilke from Commercial Closet for sending us this.

Today's Sunday Telegraph in the UK has a gay VisitBritain travel market article that Mike, and we, found very interesting.

Out Now have been telling tourist office clients for over a decade that the US traveller (and most others) can get "gay" life at home so why travel far away for it?

Probably the "gay" experience Out Now thinks still holds sufficient 'different' attraction to sell as a stand-alone gay advertising concept is the gay cruise ship trips (RSVP, Atlantis, Olivia, Rosie etc) - mainly because then, for once, gay people get to enjoy just being the 'norm' for a week.

Quite apart from the night time party aspects of the lesbian / gay cruise experience Out Now actually think it is just the "normalised" elements - eating at the ship cafe holding hands, or kissing by the pool, with no fear, things the heterosexual traveller accepts without awareness - that is selling that travel to thousands and thousands of people, very especially the Americans.

You are not going to get that at Big Ben - so why even pretend? Selling "camp" as a UK gay travel marketing PR strategy is a bit limp, and we think that has clearly run its course. It would seem the gay travel market, especially in the lucrative US gay travel market, thinks precisely the same thing.

What Out Now prefer to do is to sell the destination brand to the gay tourism consumer - sometimes with a gay travel 'edge', but only as relevant.

That was very evident in our just finished UK market and Ireland market Air Berlin gay travel campaign - German men still hold significant travel attraction for gay males in Eire and the UK thinking of travel to Germany, but German women do not similarly feature in decision-making for lesbian travellers from the UK and Ireland; so the creative we produced for the two target groups in that campaign reflects that.

Probably more than selling 'gay', travel marketing must first sell the 'destination' - since Out Now think that is primarily what puts the people constituting the gay travel market into the plane seats.

This idea of telling US travellers they are likely to see a 'gay' travel experience in the UK that is different and unique and that is worth travelling thousands of miles for and spending thousands of dollars on has, we think, always been unrealistic - it just doesn't wash.

Usually gay travel to Pride in London, or in LA, or in NYC, or in Chicago, or in SF, or in Cape Town, or in Melbourne, or in Sydney is actually about the city first much more than the Pride event, since most places have their own Christopher Street Day / Mardi Gras / Pride event each year that locals can choose to attend anyway.

Here is an extract from today's Sunday Telegraph gay travel market tourism article in the UK about VisitBritain:

Gay tourists turned off British holidays by camp campaign
By Chris Hastings, Arts and Media Editor, Sunday Telegraph

It has "outed" a gay English king, highlighted male nudes in London's galleries, and even hired a model to dance through San Francisco clad only in leather shorts and a Busby - VisitBritain has certainly tried hard to persuade homosexual tourists to come to Britain.

Now the country's official tourism agency is rethinking its approach after its own research found many homosexual holidaymakers thought the advertising campaigns were camp and too obsessed with sex and stereotypes.

Overtly homosexual images are being phased out after focus groups in the United States, Germany and France said the Chelsea Flower Show and Crufts were a bigger draw than the country's homosexual scene.

Old posters which featured images of half-naked hunks, drag queens and "gay icons" like Kylie Minogue are being replaced with sophisticated, traditionally British images.

New advertising material will feature same-sex couples enjoying country walks or iconic British images such as a phone box or Buckingham Palace guards dressed in the rainbow colours of the Gay Pride movement.

The views of homosexuals in the key American market have been the driving force behind the new VisitBritain campaign. Volunteers at three specially convened focus groups in Chicago, New York and San Francisco took offence at the suggestion they were looking for a "sex vacation".

The research concluded: "Gays and lesbians are not going to Britain because they might see other gays and lesbians; their motivations and triggers are similar to those of other travellers.

"They consider Britain a sophisticated, wordly destination - and they want to see it portrayed as such. They do not want to see it presented in a cheesy way."

Americans questioned by VisitBritain said they were unimpressed by constant references to the UK's nightclubs for homosexuals and assurances that they would be able to meet like-minded people.

They also thought the campaigns directed at them were too obsessed with homosexual-friendly urban areas like Brighton and Manchester when they were more interested in beauty spots like the Lake District.

Adverts which featured pictures of topless men under Big Ben were deemed to be a turn-off as were the organisation's reliance on events such as Gay Pride. Some respondents said they were more likely to stay away to avoid such events.

One respondent said: "I live in New York City - I get enough gay events here".

Attracting homosexual visitors has become a priority for VisitBritain. Research has shown gay and lesbian communities in target countries have a higher propensity to travel and a higher than average income.
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