LGBT Tourism - Middle East

TOPICS: LGBT Tourism. Middle East. LGBT Tourism Market. LGBT Frontiers tourism. LGBT travel market. Middle East LGBT travel marketing. Lesbian and gay tourism to Middle east. LGBT tourism marketing spreads out to embrace "LGBT Frontiers" tourism market.


Ian Johnson, Out Now
August 28, 2007

We discussed earlier at Gay Market News the usual need for LGBT tourism marketing to focus on destinations that are truly 'gay comfortable' and that make the LGBT tourism market feel welcomed, respected and safe.

That is usually the case, but is not always so.

LGBT travelers are expanding horizons further and further afield, and areas that once would have been thought to be 'off-limits' to LGBT travelers are opening up, and discovering that there are new and interesting ways to develop LGBT tourism marketing potential in these new regions.

Out Now Consulting calls this initiative of LGBT travelers to expand an ever-growing number of LGBT tourism target destinations the development of a new LGBT Frontiers tourism market trend segment.

Last decade, we would have classed Eastern Europe as an LGBT Frontiers tourism destination, yet today travel by lesbians and gay men to these regions has become fairly mainstream.

I had an interesting interview last week with a journalist from the Wall Street Journal about this trend, and we discussed how LGBT tourism is no longer confined to definable geographic regions.

Even the Middle East - an area where gays and lesbians would not feel especially welcome in mainstream society, is beginning to be added to more adventurous LGBT travelers destination shopping list.

This LGBT Frontiers region is definitely nascent, but its mere existence is a quite fascinating testament to the continuing expansion of LGBT tourism to regions around the entire globe.

Here is a temporary link to the LGBT tourism Middle East story from the Wall Street Journal.

This is another link for Wall Street Journal subscribers to access.

We extract below the first part of this article for you.

Intriguing reading indeed.

Marketing Middle East to Gay Tourists
Creativity, Discretion Are Keys to Promotions By Lebanese Advertiser
By FARNAZ FASSIHI
Wall Street Journal--August 27, 2007; Page B5

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- How do you market a conservative Middle Eastern country as a gay-friendly tourist destination?

"It can be done," says Bertho Makso, a 26-year-old Lebanese archaeology student and perhaps the Arab world's best-known gay travel-services advertiser. "You just have to be creative, and sometimes discreet."

Homosexuality is against the law in every Muslim country in the Middle East. In countries such as Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, gays and lesbians are often persecuted, imprisoned or deported. So Mr. Makso stands out. The U.S.-based International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association named him their sole representative in the Arab Middle East. (Israel has a robust gay community.)

"Bertho is very daring to have an openly gay business in the Arab world," says Carlos Kytka, the association's marketing manager for Europe and the Middle East. "The Middle East is not a big market for us at the moment, but we have to start somewhere, and he is taking those first steps."

Bertho Makso took a tour group to visit the Roman ruins at Baalbek, in Lebanon.
Marketing to gay consumers is on the rise elsewhere. During 2006, ad spending targeting gay consumers in the U.S. hit $223.3 million, a record, according to a survey from advertising agency Prime Access Inc. and gay-media specialist Rivendell Media. Ad spending in the U.S. gay-and-lesbian press has grown at almost three times the rate of spending in consumer magazines as a whole over the past 10 years, the report says.

Among gay consumers, travel is at the top of the list for expenditures, says Ian Johnson, chief executive of Out Now Consulting, an Amsterdam-based gay-marketing firm with offices world-wide.

But in the Middle East, gay advertising is uncharted territory, and so far, Mr. Makso appears to be the only one doing any of it.

The gay-tourism market in the Middle East is limited and likely to remain so for a long time. Because homosexuality is still considered taboo, the biggest challenge for gay business owners such as Mr. Makso is that there is always a risk of discrimination or of being shunned.

Still, Out Now's Mr. Johnson says recent focus groups have shown a rising interest among gay travelers in the Mideast, particularly Lebanon.

It helps that Lebanon is the most tolerant Arab and Muslim country in the region. An article in Lebanese law calls for punishment of "abnormal" sexual behavior, but it generally isn't enforced. It doesn't specifically single out gays, and a gay-rights group here called Helem pushes the envelope, publicly lobbying to modify the law. A popular nightclub called Acid caters to gay clients, and there are scores of gay-friendly cafés and bars.

Concludes tomorrow...

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