Ian Johnson, Out Now
December 30, 2007
TOPICS: Gay marketing. Gay market news in review. Gay brands in mainstream market. LGBT brand marketing. Gay Market News reviews some of the news highlights of 2007 in the world of gay and lesbian marketing. Fort Lauderdale and how to handle your gay travel marketing.The lesbian and gay tourism market has been expanding year on year for a long time.
In 2007 the continued expansion in the LGBT travel market was an ongoing story.
One destination though, Fort Lauderdale, found itself in a difficult position -- the local Mayor made remarks deemed offensive by gays and lesbians from around the global gay travel market, at the same time as the local Destination Marketing Organization for Fort Lauderdale was actively trying to target lesbian and gay travelers.
The old saying 'when you are in a hole stop digging' might have helped, but the mayor of Fort Lauderdale was having none of that earlier this year when his continuing negative comments about gay travelers made a bad gay PR situation just keep getting worse.
Here is an extract from one of the Gay Market News reports on the Fort Lauderdale gay travel difficulties of 2007:
Fort Lauderdale in Florida is one of the prettiest beach tourism areas of the USA.
It is also one of the most active areas implementing gay tourism marketing, coordinated via the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau.
As with many other tourism bodies these days, there is also a dedicated gay travel microsite on the main Fort Lauderdale CVB website. They also, in line with many gay tourism marketing destinations, have a dedicated booklet for people interested in gay tourism.
Fort Lauderdale CVB even promotes the destination in their gay tourism marketing materials by describing the place as "America's top gay resort area".
Well Fort Lauderdale has been in the news a lot lately - in both mainstream as well as gay and lesbian media around the world. And for all the wrong reasons.
The mayor of Fort Lauderdale, Jim Naugle, has said some rather uncomplimentary things about gay men recently. Naugle has even baulked at housing lesbian and gay reading material in a city building.
The local tourism body, that has done such a good job over the years promoting gay travel to Fort Lauderdale with a range of well-targeted gay tourism marketing initiatives, must be 'less than whelmed' to see some of what has been said over at City Hall.
Lesbian and gay travelers are somewhat spoiled for choice these days when it comes to locations realizing that gay travel marketing is not a political gesture - it is smart business.
Gay tourism marketing makes sense for a range of destinations for a wide range of reasons, from Switzerland to Germany to Sydney to San Francisco to Paris to Key West. Fort Lauderdale faces a lot of competitive noise in the gay tourism marketing space.
The last thing the local Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau needs is a mayor that has expressed such intensely negative sentiments that are likely to drive the hard sought gay tourism market dollar someplace else.
Although based on some of the mayor's own remarks he probably wouldn't mind that much.
Whether the Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau, currently watching years of integrated gay tourism marketing unravelling before their eyes, would agree with the mayor is another matter entirely.
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