LGBT travel market exceeds US$ 218 billion

TravelBizNews—

London :  The annual value of total spending on travel and tourism by lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender (LGBT) people is being revealed  by LGBT consulting specialists at WTM London.

The data is being presented by Ian Johnson, Chief Executive Officer of Out Now this week at the LGBT Masterclass at the global travel industry event WTM London.

The data is sourced from Out Now’s global LGBT 2030 research program, which reaches a research panel comprising over 130,000 participants from 26 countries.

The new research presented at WTM London by Out Now received 8,752 replies.

The data shows the annual spend as at 2018 by LGBT residents of key countries. This includes spending on domestic and international travel and includes analysis of travel, accommodation, holiday dining, sightseeing and other tourism expenditure.

Country        Total (US$bn) 2018

USA                           63.1

Brazil                        26.8

Japan                        20.7

Germany                   13.8

UK                             11.7

France                      11.4

Mexico                      11.4

Italy                          9.0

Canada                     7.1

Spain                        7.0

Australia                 6.9

Turkey                     6.6

Colombia               5.1

Poland                   4.7

India                       4.7

Argentina              4.3

Netherlands         3.0

Israel                    1.4

Total                    US$ 218.7

The findings demonstrate the resilience of this diverse global market.“Out Now has worked for 27 years to better understand and meet the needs of LGBT people globally,” Johnson said.

“A fundamental aspect of Out Now’s work is research so we are very pleased to continue our 15 year partnership with World Travel Market by releasing these findings today at WTM in London. This new global LGBT2030 research data reveals a market that is robust, diverse and growing. It is also important though that travel industry suppliers understand they need to focus past the strong value of the market, to make sure their products and services are well-tailored to meet the specific needs of this market. That includes training and education for customer-facing staff as a minimum – to make sure the potential of the large LGBT travel spend can be fully realised by individual destinations and hotels.”

“India is a market with strong and growing potential,” Johnson said. “The recent removal of anti-gay laws sees this market demonstrating the strongest annual growth rate in 2018 of more than 7% over the past twelve months.”

Simon Press, Senior Director, World Travel Market said: “We’ve worked with Out Now for a number of years, and we would like to think that the educational sessions have contributed to the industry having a better understanding of the needs of the LGBT community. Society has become more accepting generally of LGBT people but there are still pockets of discrimination and prejudice, and the travel industry need to be part of the drive to change entrenched views. It’s not an issue of LGBT rights, it’s about human rights.”

Source: WTM London

Nov.7 , 2018