Unveiling the results during an LGBT Tourism Masterclass, Ian Johnson, chief executive of Out Now Consulting, said that although two out of three (65.7%) of the 743 respondents said they had considered appealing to the LGBT market, 42.5% said they hadn’t allocated resources to target LGBT customers.
“This is despite findings showing that $202 billion is spent annually by the LGBT market in countries such as the US, Brazil, Japan, Turkey, France and the UK among others,” he said.
“It shows there is a big disconnect between the true potential, and active investment in attracting people that actually want to spend this money.”
Meanwhile of those surveyed – which included a mix of travel agents and tour operators – only one in 10 said they had experienced a negative outcome to their LGBT marketing, which Johnson said was “reassuring for people thinking about entering the market”.
One in five, however, admitted making a mistake when entering this market, with anecdotal examples including initially focusing too much on partying and sexuality, or too much on gay men rather than lesbians.
Respondents also said they made mistakes in simply putting rainbow colours on their website and labelling it LGBT. “Just rainbow-washing something is not going to sway LGBT consumers into buying your product; it’s just not going to cut it,” Johnson said.
“If your product is gay then [a rainbow is] fabulous, but if you’re a non-gay company [marketing to the LGBT sector] then be careful.”
Elsewhere, Andrew Stoke, chief executive of Marketing Manchester, warned delegates to ensure they were honest about their product. “First and foremost, the product must be there, and you have to be honest about that, because you will soon be found out if you’re not.”
Attendees were also told to keep innovating. Gary Henshaw, owner of Ku Group, which operates a number of gay venues, used his business as an example of this. “Venues that are successful are those that aren’t just special to LGBT people, but to their [straight] friends as well. You have to keep moving on,” he added.
