LGBT Tourism Marketing for Destinations - Your 'How To Start' Guide by Out Now - Part 1

February 25, 2014 -- In the first of this two part report, Ian Johnson, CEO of Out Now, sets out how to best begin to make the most effective inroads in the LGBT tourism market.

At Out Now we are often approached by clients new to the vast global markets comprised of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) customers.

The first question we are usually asked is: how do we begin?

As our company has enjoyed working at the leading-edge of LGBT market developments for 22 years now, I thought it could be useful to set out our advice to marketers who know they want to approach this potentially lucrative market opportunity - but just don't quite know where to start.

1. Research

There is no substitute for accurate market knowledge. When I established our Australian company Significant Others back at the start of the 1990s, it was clear that if we cannot measure the market, we cannot begin to understand what the market's needs - and opportunities - look like.

Since then, Out Now has continued its pre-eminent position as pioneers of global LGBT market research. This year we are sampling LGBT people living in more than 20 markets around the world, measuring the same core metrics, and building the most comprehensive picture of LGBT people there has ever been.

Our global research initiative LGBT2020 is the world's largest and only truly global study that tracks workplace issues, demographic trends, travel preferences and consumer metrics to help us work out how to better connect clients with consumers - and most importantly to do this in a way that understands and meets LGBT people's needs as customers and as workers.

LGBT2020 data results are helping Out Now clients around the world understand what motivates LGBT people in relation to their products and services. For our tourism clients we use the power of these unparalleled research insights to guide our clients strategic tourism marketing initiatives. We can even prioritize - country by country - which specific aspects of a destination's many features are the most important to LGBT travelers originating from a particular target region market, delivering previously unattainable levels of precision in strategy development as a result.

So our first advice to travel clients wanting to do better in the LGBT market is to start by analyzing the research data available to gain the clearest possible picture of the current market situation - in order to plot the most effective strategic course for marketing plans.  

2. Training

We ask all our LGBT2020 research respondents what are the key motivating factors when they decide what leisure travel product to purchase. Consistently we see that the key driver in tourism decision-making for consumers is whether they genuinely expect to feel welcomed during their holidays.

We realized almost seven years ago that this was a tough factor to manage. It means the key to success is not how glamorous your travel advertising is, or how clever your marketing taglines. It actually means that the key to ongoing LGBT market success is in the hands of people who often have little to do with your marketing strategies: your staff.

It makes sense. When you think about how you gauge whether you enjoyed your vacation, over and above the amenities of the hotel, or the size of the pool, it is usually the small moments of service and assistance delivered by warm and genuinely welcoming staff that makes the difference between a good holiday - and a great vacation.

Even more so with LGBT guests.

LGBT people are concerned at various key moments about how your customer-facing staff will react to them. Will the middle aged woman checking them in be comfortable welcoming a lesbian couple? Will the young room service guy be genuinely professional and friendly when delivering food to the room of a gay couple?

LGBT people do not want to be treated differently, they actually want what everyone else takes for granted: the small luxury to just relax and be totally comfortable to be themselves when on vacation. Most non-LGBT people take this for granted.

But for LGBT guests, staying in a place where staff in hotels, taxis, tourist attractions and restaurants are clearly, genuinely and professionally welcoming to them is a nice - and often unexpected - part of their holiday experience. In terms of repeat and referral business, such a response from LGBT guests is also highly valuable for tourism industry providers.

Our solution at Out Now is a multi-faceted approach, centered upon our global LGBT tourism networking association Out Now Business Class.

Industry ONBC workshops - we create and deliver workshops for key stakeholders in each location to help explain the nuances of this market and assist staff to move beyond stereotypes to get a real grasp of what drives the LGBT tourism market.

ONBC management training workshops - our dedicated team of professionals approach each client with a tailored information and training solution. We craft a detailed overview of training aspects relevant for staff to understand when serving LGBT guests. We include a key management module called 'Avoiding the Twitterstorm' - helping management react instantly, calmly and professionally should any unforeseen issue arise involving LGBT guests and others.

ONBC online training - we train literally thousands of staff worldwide in various languages with our proprietary online ONBC training. We cover practical advice for staff. Do's and Don'ts. Moving past stereotypes. Key LGBT travel concerns - and include an online quiz, with results emailed to management.

This link to a business news article from late 2013 contains the following quote which we think speaks volumes about the effectiveness of the ONBC approach:

"Out Now Business Class has been a real solution for Marriott in helping our managers understand the more detailed issues of training that help us deliver superior service (using) the ONBC online training in Spanish. This has now been used by more than 800 of our team in both of our Cancun resorts to make sure the customer-facing staff our guests connect with are able to deliver for them the very best levels of welcoming service. ONBC Training has been key to this for us at Marriott in Cancun."
- Patricia Trejo, Training & Quality Manager, JW Marriott 

In Part 2 - the next Gay Market News article - we will move onto ways to promote most effectively direct to LGBT target consumers.

Out Now Global is the world's leading LGBT marketing agency. Clients include visitBerlin, VisitBritain, Visit Mexico, Visit Helsinki, German National Tourist Office, Stockholm Visitors Board - and many more. Established in 1992, Out Now has been responsible for many of the leading developments in the LGBT tourism market since that time. 

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