Gay Consumer - Gay Cruise Market

Ian Johnson, Out Now
October 15, 2007
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TOPICS: Gay cruise market. PlanetOut lesbian and gay media business offloads gay consumer travel market brand. Gay tourism market. Lesbian and gay travel consumer market. Gay consumers for tourism. Lesbian and gay consumer cruise marketing. Gay and lesbian tourism - cruises. CruiseCritic.com report on PlanetOut (NASDAQ:LGBTD) offloading of RSVP Vacations cruise charter and gay tourism brand.

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Gay Market News reported last week on the sale of the PlanetOut gay consumer market brand, RSVP Vacations.

The RSVP brand is one that has not fired for PlanetOut -- primarily a gay media and dating business -- in the way that PlanetOut's Board, and shareholders, would have wanted.

The decision to offload RSVP seems to make market sense allowing PlanetOut to consolidate its business strengths in its core competencies of media and gay social networking businesses.

The influential cruise industry web site CruiseCritic.com has an interesting article on the sale. At the end of the day, RSVP will succeed or fail based on its ability to find enough gay market consumers willing to buy into the brand image.

Here is an extract of the CruiseCritic take on these gay consumer market issues:

All-Gay Cruise Companies Consolidate as Atlantis Acquires RSVP

Atlantis Events has announced that it has acquired its sole major competitor in this market, RSVP Vacations.

Both Atlantis and RSVP (credited with pioneering the all-gay cruise vacation) have been chartering large and small cruise ships from major lines such as Holland America, Royal Caribbean, Princess and Celebrity for all-gay trips during the past fifteen years. These popular trips, which include special entertainment, such as dance parties and onboard activities, have become big business in the past decade, with more guests and more exotic itineraries (such as Atlantis' Rio Carnaval Cruise in South America and RSVP Vacations' Queen Mary 2 crossing this summer) than ever before. In 2007 alone, Atlantis will host 20,000 guests on its various cruises and land vacations.

Two years ago, RSVP Vacations was acquired by PlanetOut, Inc., the leading gay and lesbian entertainment and publishing company responsible for Out Magazine, The Out Traveler and Gay.com, among other properties. PlanetOut's goal was to leverage its numerous and popular media vehicles in the gay community to help build the RSVP cruise business, but in the past year, the number of cruises offered by RSVP has actually declined compared to past years.

Atlantis has been more successful in building its core business by focusing on chartering the biggest and most glamorous ships afloat; the upcoming February 2008 Liberty of the Seas cruise will be the largest gay cruise ever, trumping even this year's Freedom of the Seas charter.

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