Ian Johnson, Out Now
August 25, 2007
Gay Market News has been bringing gay tourism marketing news about an ongoing lesbian and gay tourism marketing PR disaster currently being faced by a region with one of the better track records in developing strong lesbian and gay tourism marketing outreach.
Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau has been highly active in years past at sending out gay communications messages that are squarely targeting the lesbian and gay tourism market.
So what went wrong?
In recent weeks though the Fort Lauderdale tourism marketing Bureau has seen its efforts being scuppered by outspoken remarks widely perceived as being stereotyping and anti-gay by Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle.
The battle between the gay tourism marketing efforts of the local CVB and Mayor Naugle spilled out into the public media domain and has been subject to growing media coverage - both gay media and mainstream media - revealing a schism between City Hall and the gay tourism market efforts of the city's pre-eminent tourism marketing authority.
Thursday a public meeting was held where the two sides - well the Mayor and everyone else, or so it looked in all the media coverage we could locate - discussed openly the issues giving rise to the current crisis over gay tourism marketing by Fort Lauderdale.
The extract below of local NBC news coverage of the Fort Lauderdale gay tourism market spat is typical of what's out there in the media on this rolling PR and gay communications issue.
Hopefully this gay tourism marketing PR debacle will end soon, before too much more bad gay PR communications rolls out into the market place.
Tourism Board At Odds With Mayor's Anti-Gay Comments
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- He has been at the center of controversy since making anti-gay comments in public. On Thursday, Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle met with the county's tourism board to discuss how his words might affect the city's bottom line.
During the meeting, the Broward County Tourism Board members said all the marketing in the world cannot make up for damage the mayor's words have caused. They said Naugle's "15 minutes of fame" are putting millions of potential tourist dollars at risk.
Board members said that each time the mayor speaks they receive hundreds of e-mails from potential visitors to Fort Lauderdale, saying they plan to take their money elsewhere.
One board member said a 200-person group was scheduled to stay at a prominent hotel in Fort Lauderdale. In light of Naugle's comments, they have placed the reservation, along with $250,000 in revenue, on hold.
"The county is receiving quite a few e-mails and inquiries of concern about what's happening," said Richard Gray, owner of Palm Resorts and Spa. "The gay and lesbian tourism market is a massive market here. It's about a $1 billion industry. It's a very important niche market for Fort Lauderdale."
"We have worked diligently for 20 years to be inclusive as a destination, to welcome people to our destination," said Nikki Grossman of the Fort Lauderdale Tourism Development Council. "The confusing, hateful message that people are hearing now is not the message of our population, of our industry, of our destination."
Naugle said he will not back off the comments and will be outspoken as long as public health is an issue in Fort Lauderdale.
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