Mr. Schuurman

Diversity Issues

Overt Marketing of Sexual Orientation: Going too far?

By Darrell Schuurman, Co-Founder, Canadian Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce

I need to first acknowledge that this article was inspired from an email I received in response to one of my previous articles. The author of that email, let's call him Mr. Smith, was very upfront and critical of some of my suggestions on how hotels can attract the gay and lesbian market. He was blunt, but I appreciated his comments (perhaps I was impressed that people actually read my articles). Not only did it give me a title for this article, but it made me really take a step back and validate everything that I've been promoting.

I decided, as I was responding to his letter, that I should actually share my comments with all of you. If Mr. Smith had these strong concerns, others must as well. I've incorporated bits of his email into this article, which by the end will hopefully give you a better sense of whether or not marketing to the gay and lesbian consumer has truly "gone too far".

Smith questioned the need for hotels to reach out to the gay and lesbian market: "I have never experienced a hotel who gave a darn about my sexual preference, and isn't that the way is should be?" He's right, that's the way it should be, but we're not there yet. I bet most "straight" people out there have never experienced a hotel that cared about their sexual orientation, but I can tell you personally that there are still hotels that do seem to care when the sexual orientation is gay or lesbian. So because of that, there is still an opportunity for accommodations to successfully target the gay and lesbian market.

Sure, gay people will travel to destinations and will stay at hotels that don't market specifically to them, but research has shown that they prefer to go to destinations and stay at places that are committed to them and target them specifically. A recent survey conducted by Harris Interactive showed that nearly half of all gay and lesbians say a destination's gay friendliness is important when making travel decisions.

Is this all to say that gay travelers will forgo quality, price and service for a hotel that markets to them? Not at all. These are all just equally important. No different from the mainstream traveler. But what I'm getting at is more than just the basics. It's speaking directly to the market and ensuring they feel comfortable and safe as any other guest. And just like the mainstream traveler, they want to feel welcomed. This is what reaching out to the gay and lesbian traveler is all about: making them feel welcome.

We would all love the day when we would not have to worry about walking into the hotel in mid-west USA or Canada hand-in-hand with our partners, or not having the front desk agent blink twice when asking for a king bed instead of two beds. But like I said, Canada and the US aren't there yet. Sure, there are some gays out there that wouldn't be fazed by that (perhaps the friends that Mr. Smith talks about), but in my experience this is not true for a large percentage of gay travelers. I can actually say that from experience this past fall, after spending the week in San Francisco (attending an international gay and lesbian travel conference), my partner and I took a few extra days to explore the west coast. I can tell you that in one town where we stopped for the evening, I felt a little awkward and VERY aware of the reaction by the hotel staff when we asked for a king bed. Now if there was a hotel that had actively marketed to the gay traveler in that town, I certainly would have stayed there.

Having businesses target the gay and lesbian traveler specifically is also good for the local economy. It shows the destination is gay friendly. It brings people in. They spend money. They spend money at the gay bars. They spend money at the gay restaurants. They spend money at the museums, theatres, and shops. They spend money at hotels. And if they're spending their money, they want to know they're going to be treated equally, friendly.

Gays and lesbians in the US have an estimated purchasing power of 641 billion dollars, and gays and lesbians are increasingly becoming more aware of who they're buying from. It's important that they be informed of where they spend their money, and ensure that they're spending their money with those companies that support them. Because of this, companies need to realize that it does matter how they approach this market, and that if they really want a piece of if, they need to seriously look at not only their product offerings and how they're selling it, but what is going on internally.

Smith then goes on to ask "What existing products inside a hotel would prove more attractive to the gay traveler that would not also be attractive to me as a non-gay traveler? Is sexual orientation really the correct and fair way to delineate culture?" My response is: why shouldn't hotels have specific gay products? Hotels offer straight wedding packages with champagne and hot-tubs. They offer kids packages with water parks and Nintendo. Why shouldn't there be gay specific products? I just read an article that the Hyatt Regency in Boston is offering an Extreme Pride package, with $10 of every booking going towards AIDS research. Brilliant. Why? Because it's a package that really resonates for the gay and lesbian traveler, gives back to the community, and best of all, ties in with their overall "Extreme" marketing campaign.

Smith added "If I were gay, I would be even more insulted than I currently am by the notion of some hotel marketer aiming a fashion or lifestyle campaign at me based solely on my sexual preference..." The problem with this viewpoint is that hotel marketers do this all the time. They show images of husband and wife hand-in-hand, they show kids frolicking in the pool as mom and dad watch, they show husbands phoning their wives back home as they sink into their beds. All of these images, these messages, are being targeted to the heterosexual market. So on the contrary to Smith's comment that gays should be insulted by marketing to their sexual orientation, as a gay man, I am in fact more insulted when all I ever see is the "traditional" family being portrayed. Gays and lesbians do not look like these images we see in traditional marketing pieces, so how can a company expect the gay and lesbian market to truly relate to the message?

Smith hits harder with "You make a mockery of the real struggle out there like forcing companies to even HIRE gay and lesbian people. You want to change the world for the better? Then focus on opening minds through education, not creating phony marketing campaigns which serve to further the notion that gay people are somehow "different" than the rest of us." His points are fair, and I agree in part. I understand the importance of the continued fight for social change and justice, and there are great organizations in the US and in Canada that are mandated to do that. We, however, focus on the business and economics side of the gay and lesbian market. The Canadian Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (CGLCC) strives to improve opportunities for gay & lesbian businesses and businesses that want to reach out to this market. But I've always stressed that when marketing to the gay and lesbian consumer, it is so much more than just a gay ad or a rainbow sticker. It's ensuring your internal policies reflect what your marketing campaign is saying.

Mr. Smith started off his email to me with "Isn't this going a bit too far? Is the fact that someone is gay really a great way to categorize them into a consumer demography?" He's absolutely correct in that, within this "gay" demographic, one can certainly filter down further and target based on psychographics, age, income, and so on, just as one would do within the "straight" demographic. I see huge opportunity for companies to start targeting gay and lesbian seniors, for instance, as we see the baby boomers now hitting 60 fast and furious. But overall, I think the fact that somebody is gay is a great way to categorize them. The gay and lesbian market is different from the straight market, and how you reach them and how you speak to them is different. If businesses truly want to reach and maintain this consumer, then they need to provide products and services specifically for them, and market specifically to them. At the end of it all, Mr. Smith, businesses actually need to go further - they have not gone far enough.

Darrell Schuurman is co-founder of the Canadian Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, and is Director of the tourism program. He is responsible for improving opportunities for gay and gay-friendly tourism-based businesses through research, market development, and promotion of Canada as a gay travel destination. Darrell has worked in the accommodation, transportation, tourism, and travel sectors of the industry. He now works with Canada's national passenger railway, VIA Rail, as Manager of Market Development. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce concentrating in Tourism from the University of Calgary. Mr. Schuurman can be contacted at 416-761-5151 or darrell@cglcc.ca Extended Bio...

HotelExecutive.com retains the copyright to the articles published in the Hotel Business Review. Articles cannot be republished without prior written consent by HotelExecutive.com.