LGBT Tourism Demographic Profile

Key findings from CMI’s 16th Annual LGBT Tourism Study have been compiled from responses from self-identified gay and lesbian consumers who read LGBT publications, visit LGBT websites, and attend LGBT events. With over 10,000 respondents, this study polled more qualified, community-representative respondents than any other LGBT tourism survey, and offers valuable insights about consumers who may be reached through LGBT-dedicated marketing initiatives.

In addition to the Tourism Study, CMI produces online surveys, focus groups, field studies and customer satisfaction evaluations for a wide variety of clients including CVBs, DMOs and tourism offices, tour operators, hospitality groups, real estate developers, etc. In the year 2011 alone, CMI collected and analyzed over 100,000 gay and lesbian survey responses.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the travel and tourism industry in the United States generated more than $1.3 trillion in economic output in 2010. Based on this data and CMI sample demographics, we estimate that the annual economic impact of LGBT travelers is over US$65 billion per year in the U.S. alone.

Key Findings and Observations

1. Overall, the LGBT community has increased their travel in the last year, compared to the year before. Most destinations surveyed increased LGBT travel by 1 to 3% in the past year. This is in contrast to the last two years, which saw a decrease in LGBT travel due to the global economic recession, an anomaly in over 16 years of sampling.
2. CMI’s annual destination rankings did not see much change from the previous year. However some cities did see a more significant increase. New York City has always been the number one LGBT destination in the USA and the city has slightly increased its lead over the traditional second and third place cities of San Francisco and Las Vegas.  New Orleans continues to gain visitors and is approaching pre-Katrina rankings. Miami has increased its LGBT tourism and has jumped back into the top ten for USA destinations.
3. New York City scored #1 in all three key indicators; actual visits to the destination in past 12 months, most gay-friendly destination in the world and personal favorite destination. Las Vegas, San Francisco and London also scored well in all three indicators.
4. Considering their size and number of hotel rooms, Provincetown, Key West and Palm Springs scored extremely well in all three indicators.  If you would analyze the data by number of hotel rooms in a destination, these three destinations would be the most popular in the United States.
5. In the USA, 85% of gay male survey respondents and 77% of lesbians own a valid passport. More impressively, 54% of gay men used their passport in the last year.
6. The LGBT community is much more likely to describe themselves as “urban core travelers” than “eco travelers” or “outdoor adventure travelers.” Gay men are much more likely to describe themselves as both “urban core travelers” and “warm weather travelers.”  Gay men and LGBTs under 35 are far more likely to indicate that they are “urban core travelers” than lesbians.
7. Survey results suggest the mid-range market is the biggest group among LGBT travelers, followed by economy/budget, and then luxury.
8. The LGBT economy/budget market is larger than many people assume. Far more LGBT travelers consider themselves to be “economy/budget travelers” than “luxury travelers,” indicating an opportunity for every tier of travel marketers. “Budget traveling” is not about income; it is about consumers spreading their travel funds across as many vacations as possible. Among economy/budget LGBT travelers, only about a third indicated they stay at economy hotels because they are low income. Most indicate they would rather spend their money on more frequent vacations, local attractions or restaurants.
9. Approximately 3% of gay men and 19% of lesbians indicated having children under 18 living at home. Once gay men or lesbians have children, family-friendly travel preferences become more important than LGBT-friendly travel preferences by a 2-1 margin.
10. Attending LGBT events are key motivators within the LGBT community, generating a high number of hotel nights.  On average, gay men and lesbians spend 3 nights in a destination when traveling for an event.
11. Before booking a trip, gay men and lesbians compare on average three to four websites before making a purchase.
12. Results indicate that gay men and lesbians are more likely to travel to a destinations with gay-friendly reputations / laws.  However, the survey asked a number of questions in different ways to analyze the effectiveness of LGBT destination boycotts.  Community Marketing, Inc. focus groups indicate that while corporate boycotts can be effective, destination boycotts are not effective because many LGBT people don’t penalize communities/people because of national or state laws. The survey results confirm these findings. Only about a third of gay men and lesbians are inclined to not travel to destinations with anti-gay bias. More importantly, it became clear that a destination’s reputation for anti-gay violence is a better predictor than anti-gay laws in deterring LGBT travel. News stories about gay bashing in a destination may in fact be more damaging than anti-gay laws (although these two considerations are often related).
13. The top four motivators in choosing one hotel over another are the hotel’s location, price, free Wi-Fi internet access and the hotel’s gay-friendly reputation.
14. “Gay Pride” is still a significant travel motivator for LGBTs under 35.  The younger generation is more likely to travel to another city for Pride than their older LGBT counterparts.
15. 71% of gay men and 62% of lesbians own a smart phone, and 60% of LGBT smartphone owners use their smartphones during their trips to finds local tourism resources.

Permission to use this data is granted on the condition that all LGBT research references credit “Community Marketing, Inc., San Francisco, CA”

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Special cross-tab reports are available to assist marketers interested in more detail on sub-segments of the LGBT market. For further information please contact: Thomas Roth or call Tom at 415/437-3800.

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