seh wha??????????

[evanovitch]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Interestingly, on that same day, the travel section of one of our morning papers reported that <span style="font-weight: bold">there are some eight tourism properties here in JA where the clientele is exclusively of the sexual persuasion </span>whose private business the PM abhors. Will such properties be outlawed? What do you think? Consumer research shows that &quot;gay tourism&quot; is on the increase. &quot;Those people&quot; spend money, or, as it has been designated, &quot;the pink dollar&quot;.

</div></div>

[evanovitch]

Tapping into the 'pink dollar'

Tapping into the 'pink dollar'

Janet Silvera, Hospitality Jamaica Coordinator

With some eight Jamaican gay/lesbian-friendly resorts accepting members of that community, these properties have opened themselves to tapping into the estimated US$64.5-billion annual gay market leisure travel spend. This will be a boost to these properties, especially during a year that is plagued with a global financial crisis.

<span style="font-weight: bold">The eight, which are mainly small hotels, villas and guest houses, are spread right across the island</span>.


This segment can fit the classic definition of DINKs households - namely having dual incomes, and no kids. This relative absence of children leads to a greater potential for leisure travel due to resulting higher levels of disposable income.

Although not true for all gay consumers, of course, it is sufficiently true for enough to render gay travel an attractive target market.

But ideally, all they really need to do is concentrate on the gay honeymoon market which hit an amazing £47.2 million in 2007, research from Out Now Consulting in the UK has revealed.

&quot;The data are actual spending based specifically on those people who responded to our surveys and were in or intending to enter a UK civil partnership. This figure is for one year only, 2007 - which we believe to be a representative year for the value of this market as it goes forward,&quot; <span style="font-weight: bold">Out Now's founder and CEO, Ian Johnson, told Hospitality Jamaica.</span>

He added that the total value of all leisure travel spend for gays in the UK in 2007 was a very large amount - £4.7 billion.


A similar research for the US market suggests a total of $64.5- billion gay-market leisure-travel spend every year.

The US graph is an estimate of how large the US market would be were President Obama's administration to enact uniform civil unions for gay couples across all America - something that the President is on record as supporting. &quot;We assume that the US honeymooner would spend the equivalent amount per couple (converted into US dollars) as their UK counterparts are already doing. This suggests an amount of US$376 million honeymoon spend each year,&quot; said Johnson.


Accordingly, when the amounts spent on rings, venue hire and reception are factored in, this shows that the US market for civil unions has the potential to become a market worth more than US$1 billion every year.

It is important to note that the US data are purely speculative at this stage as civil unions across America do not yet exist. States including Connecticut and Massachusetts do have gay marriage already, as do many other countries such as Spain, South Africa, Belgium, Netherlands and Canada.

However, when gays honeymoon, they visit a range of countries and even though the Caribbean is an attractive destination, and Jamaica is known as paradise, many of them hold concerns about how welcome they will be made to feel if they travel here.

For that reason, Out Now has introduced the GayComfort marketing and accreditation programme. See www. GayComfort.com

&quot;This groundbreaking initiative lets gay consumers 'know before they go' which locations are training tra- vel industry staff on becoming sensitive to gay cultural issues,&quot; noted Johnson, who added that the numbers are strengthening as more people become comfortable with being open about their sexuality.

&quot;This increases our ability to develop tailored marketing programmes.&quot;

[email protected]

[evanovitch]

Re: Tapping into the 'pink dollar'

Need to review marketing approach in tourism

Change is the only constant, it is said, and with the challenging economic times the tourism industry should also innovate and evolve. <span style="font-weight: bold">One key area to look into would be the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, as characterised by Community Marketing Inc (CMI), a market research entity, whose data and insight have been credited as &quot;providing a powerful foundation for many gay travel, tourism, and hospitality initiatives around the world&quot;. </span>

Even with the continued success of the tourism industry throughout Jamaica, the Caribbean, and the world, businesses are discovering new groups to market to, including the LGBT community, which has a value of approximately US$515 billion per year, according to estimates of several national marketing studies.

Leaders in the hospitality and tourism industry, like St Lucia's Coco Resort owner and former vice-president of the island's hotel and tourist board, Alan Chastanet, have recognised the value of the gay and lesbian market. Chastanet was fearful that his efforts to market St Lucia to gay and lesbian tourists would be misconstrued as hoggish intention.

&quot;I don't want anyone to accuse me of doing this to greedily go after the gay-travel dollar,&quot; Chastanet was quoted as saying in a past interview. &quot;I am merely speaking as a citizen interested in the development of his country.&quot;

As more companies desire to develop their nation by utilising fresh marketing tactics, CMI recently offered three steps for successful marketing to the LGBT community:

Step One: Research

According to CMI, it is important to first learn about the sensitivities, preferences, and motivations of the LGBT community through regional, national, and international surveys; customer satisfaction surveys; and advisory boards. They also mention that research helps establish a baseline in which the marketer can measure success (since a majority of LGBT consumers prefer to remain anonymous).

Step Two: Positioning and Preparation

Positioning allows a company to determine where its product or service fits into the LGBT market space. CMI suggests thumbing through popular LGBT publications to see how other LGBT companies represent themselves. Preparation involves taking assessments of internal policies and practices usually overlooked by the mainstream. Don't even take your first step toward the LGBT marketplace until you have ensured equality in your hiring practices, and in your company's treatment of its gay and lesbian employees, CMI advises. They conclude that sensitivity training, contributing to LGBT charities, and/or ensuring high HRC index ratings (hrc.org) should also be considered.

Step Three: Marketing Planning

Marketing planning should be based on market intelligence, according to CMI researchers. They recommend companies to build a marketing plan that includes various approaches based on market-research findings, company positioning, and corporate citizen strengths. They advise not to take a quick-buck approach. A consistent, strong presence will earn you market share growth in this increasingly important segment, CMI concluded.

[evanovitch]

Re: Tapping into the 'pink dollar'

'Gaycation' and cruise-ship travel

Hope Evans, Gleaner Writer

GAYCATION IS a slang term for a vacation that incorporates a pronounced aspect of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgender (LGBT) culture according to conventional belief.

Out &amp; About Magazine, a journey guide aimed at providing travel information to the gay community, stated in a recent article that gaycations have many countenances. They believe that some trips, like an all-gay cruise, have become synonymous with gay travel, but according to the magazine, there is much more to gaycations.

The magazine says that there are several different aspects of a gaycation which can be categorised into three basic tiers. First, there is a 'gay environment vacation' in which the LGBT community can spend their holiday in a self-contained resort environment with 300 to 3,000 other people within the gay and lesbian community.

These vacations often have a tour operator in charge of booking an entire cruise ship or resort hotel and the vacation is remarketed as a gaycation. Another category of gaycation is the 'smaller group vacation'. These vacations typically have 10 to 100 participants and offer customised tours with gay and straight travellers. Finally, the magazine highlighted 'independent gaycations' where companions travel on their own without the assistance of a tour operator or group organiser.

Cruise vacations are especially popular among the LGBT community, as evidenced by sold out all-gay cruises offered around the world.

number one vacation option

All-gay cruises tend to remain the number one vacation option for the gay and lesbian community, according to Atlantis Events, a company that markets travel packages to the LGBT community.<span style="font-weight: bold"> While no all-gay cruises currently travel to Jamaica, </span> there are plenty of them that dock at various Caribbean ports.

The popular cruise-ship companies that accommodate the LGBT community are Royal Caribbean, Princess and Holland America, which offer Eastern Caribbean, Mexican Riviera, and Norwegian Cruises.

The early 2009 launch of five all-gay cruise vacations offered by RSVP Vacations incited widespread cruise-ship travel interest among the LGBT community, according to the company, which produces travel packages for gay and lesbian travellers. Many islands throughout the Caribbean also accommodate the idea of gaycations by promoting their businesses as gay-owned, gay-operated, and/or gay-friendly.

Though the most popular all-gay travel activity among the LGBT community is a cruise, said Out &amp; About Magazine, hotels and tour excursion operators have also recognised their purchasing power and are beginning to cater their products and services to the LGBT community.


<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I, fi one hope an pray di day wi neva come wen mi see dem a gwanie gwanie dung a yaad like how dem do up yah.... </div></div>

[blugiant]

Re: Tapping into the 'pink dollar'

wat a ting wen yaawd peeps find out de locateshan ann dem funnee places ann remind dem afff de communitee tandards


boom bye bye iss mii favarate chune

[evanovitch]

Re: Tapping into the 'pink dollar'

privacy is all well an good...gays r welcomed to dem lifestyle...i juss not into seeing dem carry awn pon di street etc like how dem do up yah....i am really not looking fawud to Steve and Harry all laid out on the grass at Devon House, kissing an rolling in di grass etc etc ...dont like to see wat going awn in dancehall wid di daggering an dont want to see dis eida..people need fi ha a private life dat is private

[Serenity82]

Re: Tapping into the 'pink dollar'

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: blakkgiant</div><div class="ubbcode-body">wat a ting wen yaawd peeps find out de locateshan ann dem funnee places ann remind dem afff de communitee tandards


boom bye bye iss mii favarate chune </div></div>

blakkgiant: You're funny :P

[Serenity82]

Re: Tapping into the 'pink dollar'

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: evanovitch</div><div class="ubbcode-body">privacy is all well an good...gays r welcomed to dem lifestyle...i juss not into seeing dem carry awn pon di street etc like how dem do up yah....i am really not looking fawud to Steve and Harry all laid out on the grass at Devon House, kissing an rolling in di grass etc etc ...dont like to see wat going awn in dancehall wid di daggering an dont want to see dis eida..people need fi ha a private life dat is private </div></div>

Not saying that it doesn't already happen, but one reason attributed to Haiti's HIV problems were homosexual US and European men coming there to get young boys and men at the male brothels they had in Haiti. I can assume that guys will be going there trying to buy men as well.

~sigh~

[britisha]

Re: Tapping into the 'pink dollar'

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: evanovitch</div><div class="ubbcode-body">privacy is all well an good...gays r welcomed to dem lifestyle...i juss not into seeing dem carry awn pon di street etc like how dem do up yah....i am really not looking fawud to Steve and Harry all laid out on the grass at Devon House, kissing an rolling in di grass etc etc ...dont like to see wat going awn in dancehall wid di daggering an dont want to see dis eida..people need fi ha a private life dat is private </div></div>

Amen. Our island is going through too much at this to take this on again..it might just be the final nail in the coffin literally and figuratively.

[britisha]

Re: Tapping into the 'pink dollar'

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Serenity82</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
Not saying that it doesn't already happen, but one reason attributed to Haiti's HIV problems were homosexual US and European men coming there to get young boys and men at the male brothels they had in Haiti. I can assume that guys will be going there trying to buy men as well.

~sigh~ </div></div>
Dere goes the neighbourhood, when yuh think it bad, it could always be worse...

an fi wha a gwaan dere, mi noh think it wi happen for the people are rabidly agenst dem saawt a sinting yah. Dem wi fine hout whey dem deh and mek dem fenneh grease.

[blugiant]

Re: Tapping into the 'pink dollar'

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: evanovitch</div><div class="ubbcode-body">privacy is all well an good...gays r welcomed to dem lifestyle...i juss not into seeing dem carry awn pon di street etc like how dem do up yah....i am really not looking fawud to Steve and Harry all laid out on the grass at Devon House, kissing an rolling in di grass etc etc ...dont like to see wat going awn in dancehall wid di daggering an dont want to see dis eida..people need fi ha a private life dat is private </div></div>

de addar day mii drivinn widd yuths ann yu shooda ear de typa music dem a play pon de radio. slackness wass awlway part aff dancehall butt wen itt deh pon public radio fiyah affii bunn. dat y mii agree widd dem censar music dat caan play pon de radio. bigg peeps fii show respekk soo de yuths dem will learn

funnee bizz ting iss against de law soo oww privacee fii applie wen dem buggerrinn ting a gawn. de privacee argument weak cah child molestar caan sey de same ting. thyme fii weed itt out. fram dem a pare inn a chi chi hotels dunn a yaawd give wii fiyah mekk wii bunn dem