Budget limitations have stalled a specialized ad campaign in Onondaga County that would include the area’s first a gay-friendly tourism strategy.
“Once our budget stabilizes we will be able to reach our to special interest and niche groups, including the gay and lesbian market,” said David Holder, president of the Syracuse Convention & Visitors Bureau.
The Syracuse Convention & Visitors Bureau is the tourism-marketing organization for Onondaga County. It is funded by the occupancy tax on hotel rooms. The tax generated more than $4.7 million in revenue, according to the Onondaga County 2010 budget. The tax also partially funds county parks, the Gifford Zoo and other local attractions to bring in tourists.
The budget for the bureau, said Holder, is hovering at $1.5 million. In 2008, before the funding cuts, it was closer to $2 million. Since the cuts started in 2010, any specific niche market strategies have been eliminated. “With funding cuts in place,” he said, “we’ve adjusted our marketing investment to really be generalized.”
Gay and lesbian tourists are an attractive market because studies show that they tend to have higher incomes, travel more often and spend more money when they travel.
Community Marketing Inc., a San Fransisco-based market research group that has focused on providing gay and lesbian consumer information for nearly 20 years, released its 15th Annual Gay and Lesbian Tourism Study this year. The survey gathered information from 6,884 members of the gay and lesbian community. Among its findings:
- Nationally, gay and lesbian travelers spend $65 billion a year.
- 66 percent of all gay and lesbians have a household income of over $50,000. The median household income for gay and lesbian consumers is $86,400.
- 71 percent of them are college graduates and 84 percent are employed.
- The gay and lesbian market has the largest amount of disposable income of any niche market. The gay and lesbian market is estimated to be worth $660 billion in disposable income.
The study also made clear that gay and lesbian travelers look for some special characteristics in their choices of destinations. They tend to avoid places that have had controversies around gay and lesbian issues.
For example, Brenda Wrigley, a 56-year old associate professor of public relations at Syracuse University, won’t be visiting Maine again soon with her partner. The state was in the news in 2009 when its governor signed into a law a measure legalizing same-sex marriage. Voters later overturned the law late in the year.
“We loved going to Maine,” said Wrigley. “But now after all that brouhaha about gay marriage up there, we’re not going anymore.”
Holder, the president of the Syracuse Convention & Visitors Bureau, expresses optimism about stabilizing the bureau’s budget and launching a local gay-friendly marketing campaign. He hopes to have programming for the gay and lesbian market in as early as 2012, he said.
“Our competition out there is already after it,” Holder said. “We’ve got some catching up to do.”
(Luis Rendon is a graduate student in magazine, newspaper and online journalism.)
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