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.
Mya Reyes (right), 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."
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