Local tourism agencies are among the groups trying to appeal to these travelers, who represent a small fraction of the overall market but have a median household income of $86,400 and spent $70 billion on travel last year, according to the San Francisco-based market research firm Community Marketing Inc.
Massachusetts is in a prime position to benefit from this group’s spending power. Boston is the 11th most visited US destination among American gay and lesbian travelers, and Provincetown is viewed as one of the top five gay-friendly cities, according to Community Marketing, which held its 10th International Conference on Gay & Lesbian Tourism in Boston earlier this week. And the fact that Massachusetts was the first US state to legalize same-sex marriage will go a long way in attracting gay and lesbian travelers, said Community Marketing president Thomas Roth.
“I think it will generate loyalty for a long, long time,’’ he said.
Massachusetts is also the only state besides Florida whose tourism office has started marketing to gay and lesbian travelers. The Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism featured same-sex couples in a tourism campaign last year, and in January the office launched a $50,000 marketing effort aimed at these travelers. The effort includes a rainbow-flag-colored link to a gay-oriented site on the www.massvacation.com home page (the state’s official tagline, “It’s all here,’’ has been extended to “It’s all here for everyone’’ for the campaign). The agency also placed ads in gay and lesbian publications, started an LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) Facebook page that has 4,500 friends, and is developing an iPhone application.
“It doesn’t take a math major to figure out the first state in the union to have gay marriage has an opportunity here,’’ said Betsy Wall, the executive director of the state tourism office.
