Tourism frequently evolves unchecked from the bottom up; a parallel, well-managed top-down strategy enables destinations and hotels to better exploit new markets.

Examples of successful ventures in new markets can be found in the gay and lesbian GLBT tourism segment, which due to changing attitudes that respect diversity and human rights is gaining increasing support.

Thailand and the Canary Islands are some of the few destinations that developed their GLBT travel markets from the bottom up. The market was open to them; discrimination was virtually non-existent. The GLBT tourism development processes there were naturally successful. This hasn't been the case for most travel destinations which cater to the growing number of GLBT travellers.

Most travel destinations considered "gay friendly" today were not natural hotspots for GLBT travelers, like Thailand, for example, a few short years ago. Top down strategy-processes needed to be developed in order to make these destinations attractive to GLBT travelers. Vienna, Las Vegas, Berlin, Tel Aviv are but of a few destinations which have already adopted progressive marketing tools aimed at luring in GLBT travellers.

The economic potential was recognizes slowly

An ever growing amount of cities and countries worldwide have recognized the economic potential in attracting GLBT travelers and are adopting strategies to make their destinations attractive to them.

At this year's ITB several industry experts were invited to share their GLBT promotion experiences, during a podium discussion.

Mya Reyes, who developed Las Vegas' successful GLBT tourism marketing initiative, described the manifold process she went through in building up the city's gay promotion marketing strategy.

"We knew GLBT people were coming to Las Vegas, but that was mostly hearsay. We segmented and customized our tourist development process and figured out the real numbers out of the hearsay. Once we had these numbers, we took a deep look at ourselves and asked whether or not we wanted to be friends with GLBT people. It did not take us long to answer in the affirmative."

Mya Reyes, Las Vegas

"That brought us to the hard part - identifying our city's actual potential despite all the other wonderful destinations in the world. They decided to ask some insider: They did reach out to local GLBT organizations and together with them came up with their first marketing strategy.

$25 Million room revenues from GLBT in Las Vegas 2012

Reyes continues: "We believe that our work has paid off. In 2012 alone, we brought in $25 million in room revenues, that accounts for approximately 85,000 rooms from GLBT event-bookings alone. If that is not a positive indicator, then what is," Reyes said in an excited tone.

Chris Lee, who heads of the Tourism Authority of Thailand's UK operations, had a completely different experience in marketing GLBT travel to Thailand than Mya Reyes. "Essentially, we did not really have to 'market' Thailand at the beginning, since it in itself is an organically developed 'gay friendly' destination – bottom-up, so to say. Unlike in other countries, legislation requiring gender freedom did not have to be instituted in Thailand because the mindset of the people there is different. Thais are simply 'friendly' to everyone, irrespective of their gender orientation," Lee said.

One of the first steps in developing a GLBT marketing strategy is deciding what makes a destination particularly 'gay'.

What makes a destinaton particularly 'gay'?

Reyes and several other panelists said that personal safety and general public openness to GLBT visitors are basic requirements for making a destination 'gay friendly'. Local communities need to identify with GLBT travelers. "In Las Vegas, we are not a 'traditionally gay destination' such as West Hollywood. Most visitors to Las Vegas, believe it or not, do not come for the gambling or conventions, but rather for shopping. This includes the gay community. Fact is, GLBT travelers would not continue coming if they did not feel respected or safe. So again, a top-down strategy is extremely important in this kind of image building," Reyes said.

She added that she and the GBLT community have been successful at encouraging most large Las Vegas hotels, many of which employ up to 10,000 people, to implement GLBT training programs.

Accor employs their own GLBT relations manager

Steven Eidelberg, Accor Hotel's GLBT relations manager, agrees with Reyes that in-house diversity programs need to be implemented in hotels, worldwide. He was particularly proud to see several Accor hotels participating in diversity training, namely in China and in Morocco. He did emphasize though, that such training processes needed to be outsourced and implemented by experts. "We cannot decide centrally on how these programs get implemented, since each country has its own, particular sensitivities which need to be addressed by local professionals.

Thomas Bömkes, Managing Director and Senior Consultant of Diversity Tourism UG, a Munich based consulting and marketing agency for the gay tourism segment, was concerned about the prevailing human rights issues in places not as 'gay friendly' as Thailand, Las Vegas or even some of Accor's destinations such as China or Morocco.

"Indonesia is a case in point. Most of the country is Muslim and conservative, but the island of Bali is open and tolerant towards GLBT travelers," Bömkes said, visibly perplexed by the matter. Chris Lee suggested that some destinations, like Bali, are naturally "bottom up" destinations.



How to market gay and lesbian travel: Panelists Thomas Bömkes, Chris Lee, Steven Eidelberg (left to right)

Bali, unlike the rest of Indonesia, is a Hindu island in which a different value system prevails. India, on the other hand, is also a predominantly Hindu culture. However its democratization process of the GLBT community was forced upon the nation through a Supreme Court order - thus top-down.

That court order catapulted India into the league of "gay friendly" nations, literally overnight.

The attainment of GLBT rights has generally evolved through legislation or court orders, like in India. Chris Lee, however, believes that social media has been very instrumental at sensitizing decision makers to make changes resulting in increased democratization of the GLBT community.

Tourism is believed a social-based tool for human rights

Rika Jean-François, who heads ITB's GLBT segment, also believes that social, interactive communities will be instrumental in changing people's mindsets towards gays and lesbians, around the world. She added that tourism is also a social-based tool to achieve more human rights. "Just as tourism has been a tool against poverty, it can also be an educational tool against gender-based discrimination," she said.

"But education alone will not resolve this problem. It is clear that economic factors influence the travel industry – and once corporate mindsets get wind of the added value in catering towards gay travelers, the faster changes could take place," she concluded.

This is strictly an exclusive feature, reprints of this article in any shape or form without prior written approval from 4Hoteliers.com is not permitted.

Roland Wildberg is Travel Writer and Correspondent based in Berlin, Germany. He started as an Editor for the National daily 'Die Welt' (tourism section), later on switched to a freelanced career and nowadays mainly publishes on the Web. Observing the hospitality industry always has fascinated him as it looks like the perfect combination of sleeping and writing – work-live-balance as its best.

Roland also heads the annual 4Hoteliers ITB Berlin news micro-site journalist and video/photo teams for the 5th consecutive years.