Two Separate Studies Demonstrate That LGBTQI Travelers Are Ready To Lead The Travel Industry’s Recovery
by Heather Cassell
Queer travelers are restless and ready to hit the road and airways as summer travel gets underway, despite a global pandemic that looms over summer fun and vacations.
Testing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex travelers travel temperature last month, The Harris Poll® and the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association found a strong desire among queers to vacation once safety protocols are in place and destinations are ready to welcome them this year.
In general, LGBT people have major wanderlust. They take more vacations, 3.6 leisure trips in the past year compared to 2.3 that their straight counterparts took during the same year, and 2.1 business trips compared to 1.2 that their straight peers took, according to past research.
“The travel gene is so pronounced in the DNA of queer people,” LGBTQI travel expert Ed Salvato told Skift “It goes way, way back. It’s always been there.”
IGLTA President and CEO John Tanzella added, “Previous studies have shown our community to be a resilient and loyal travel segment with a tendency to travel more than their non-LGBTQ+ counterparts,” he said in the association’s May 26 news release announcing the publication of its findings in “The IGLTA Post Covid-19 LGBTQ+ Travel Survey.”
This is good news for a debilitated travel industry reeling from the COVID-19 shock.
“Travel remains a high priority for LGBT consumers – even when overcoming setbacks,” Bob Witeck, president of Witeck Communications, an LGBT market expert, told Focus on Travel News.
Bob pointed to recent historic periods, such as 9/11 in 2001 and post-The Great Recession in 2009, that had a significant effect on the hospitality and travel industry as an examples of when destinations and the travel industry overall courted LGBTQI travelers to help revive the industry and local economies.
“As conditions permit, and the economy reopens, we anticipate LGBT travelers again will be found towards the front of many lines at airports, hotels and desirable destinations,” Bob said reported FTN News.
John agreed adding, “LGBTQ+ travelers should be a valued part of their recovery plans,” he said.
Change Of Scenery
The two separate surveys took different approaches to measure queer travelers’ summer and fall travel plans.
The Harris Poll juxtaposed 284 self-identified LGBT Americans out of 2,508 Americans over the age of 18 in total, within the United States. IGLTA polled an estimated 15,000 queer travelers from around the world, mostly from the US, Brazil, Canada, France, and Mexico. The studies were published May 20 and May 26, respectively.
The Harris travel survey found that LGBT travelers (54%) were in a strong need to travel or have a change of scenery compared to only 43% of their fellow straight travelers. In order to get that change of scenery, they were more comfortable making travel decisions today than their straight counterparts.
Surveying queer travelers directly, IGLTA discovered a higher percentage (66%) of LGBTQI travelers were comfortable with traveling for leisure again by the end of 2020. The most popular travel months were September and October.
However, queer travelers weren’t waiting the summer out, according to The Harris survey. Some trips were already in the making with 28% of LGBT travelers stating that they planned to travel within the next four months (May through August) where only 21% of straight travelers were planning trips. Looking at the rest of the 2020 travel year, the survey found that just over half (51%) of LGBT travelers versus 46% of straight travelers expect to take a vacation in 2020.
Even if it’s simply traveling around the United States, 64% of LGBT travelers responded that they would be traveling somewhere in the 50 states compared to 58% of their fellow straight travelers. IGLTA also found a high rate, 57% of respondents were likely/very likely to take a domestic leisure trip.
The survey’s findings echoed what Karin Bogliolo, 79, and her wife Judy Rickard, 72, who were stranded at sea aboard the Holland America Line’s 128-day Amsterdam’s Grand World Voyage before it docked outside of Perth, Australia in March at the beginning of the pandemic.
Exhausted from the stressful journey and jetlag, the couple made it home to Silicon Valley on March 25. The couple later expressed to Girls That Roam they realized their great fortune being able to disembark and quickly fly home. They watched the news in horror to what happed to other cruisers who weren’t allowed to disembark from the cruise ships docked off the Florida coast in the month that followed the outbreak.
“Even though we were feeling very upset, I realize now that we were really lucky to get off when we did,” Judy said two days after the couple returned to California.
Their experience hasn’t dampened their wanderlust.
“We love to travel,” wrote the couple in an email interview in March from the ship. “We already said that we would be doing more road trips in America in the future, although we still want to visit friends and family in the U.K. and France.”
However, fellow formerly stranded travelers Leslie Bulbuk, 57, and her wife Marta Donayre, 50, weren’t as quick to rush booking their next vacation.
The couple was shut in at their Airbnb in Barcelona, Spain with their dog Ian when the country went on a strict lockdown, and airlines rapidly began canceling flights, including theirs in March. The couple spent several long stressful days extending their Airbnb stay with the host and trying everything they could to get a flight home. They eventually booked a flight aboard Iberia, Spain’s airline, back to the San Francisco Bay Area. Getting a refund from their original airline, Norwegian Airways, was still an issue at the time.
“We would love to travel more, but absolutely not during a pandemic!” Leslie wrote in a Facebook Messenger interview at the time. “Let’s just say it may take a while before we stray afar from home again.”
After they got back to Silicon Valley on March 19, Leslie told Girls That Roam that they had friends who were stuck in Peru with prices for airlines and charter flights from the US skyrocketing at the time.
Some adventurous queer travelers told Harris that they were comfortable planning a trip to Europe (35%) than their fellow straight travelers (28%). IGLTA didn’t focus on Europe solely for trips abroad, instead the survey found 29% of queer travelers stated that they were likely/very likely to take an international leisure trip this year.
Cruising, after all of the miss handling of passengers as COVID-19 broke out aboard ships and being shunned by ports of call even in its departure port off the Florida coast during the early stages of the pandemic, weren’t completely off of queer travelers’ travel plans.
LGBT travelers (31%) stated they were comfortable planning a cruise compared to 23% of straight travelers, according to the Harris survey. This varied greatly from IGLTA’s survey which found only 13% of queer respondents are likely/very likely to take a cruise.
After the drama of their pandemic interrupted world cruise and they were home safe, Judy and Karin cashed in on their 50% refund and made their deposit on the same cruise in 2022. The couple, still disappointed about the end of their world cruise and missed destinations, hope the itinerary will be the same if not similar and will include the destinations that they didn’t get to go to, Judy said.
As with Judy and Karin, deals went a long way not only with beginning to heal the bad experience caused by pandemic fears and cruise lines managements’ bad decisions but also with wooing LGBTQI travelers back.
LGBT travelers (47%) wanted to be courted by the travel industry with “compelling travel bargains and promotions,” compared to only 36% of their straight traveling peers, according to Harris.
“Messages of inclusion have the potential to resonate even more strongly with LGBTQ+ travelers now,” John said in the organization’s release.
Hearts Set On Destinations
Like Judy and Karin, nearly half of LGBTQI travelers (46%) also showed that they had their hearts set on their destinations or they simply didn’t want to change their plans once the coronavirus pandemic passes, according to IGLTA. Only 25% of respondents were “still undecided and only about 28% said they would change their destination choices.”
IGLTA researchers stated in the release that the respondents’ response reflected, “a high degree of destination loyalty amid the uncertainty.”
Harris also found that LGBT travelers (48%) expressed a strong personal desire to support a destination and local economy compared to their straight peers (36%).
“Particularly in New York City, it’s widely said that after 9/11 when things opened back up, our community was the first to be out there, supporting the shows and the restaurants, and the hotels and getting back out into the world,” John told Skift in March.
Massachusetts feels similarly, Anthony said.
“Forty percent of visitors are Massachusetts residents. Even more of those people will be coming this year rather than traveling further away from home they’re gonna stay more local and come by car,” Anthony told Skift about Provincetown. “We want to be at the forefront of their minds when they say ‘we’re not going to be going down to Orlando this year to go to Disney so what can we do?’ Oh look Provincetown — let’s go do that because it’ll be propping up in their feed.”
All this traveling requires staying somewhere, 59% of LGBT travelers planned on staying at a hotel compared to 50% of straight travelers, according to Harris. IGLTA’s figures were similar showing 48% were likely/very likely to stay in a hotel or resort. It appears that queer travelers aren’t afraid of home shares either in the time of Covid-19, Harris respondents expressed that 43% of them planned to stay at an Airbnb compared to only 35% of their straight counterparts. IGLTA found 34% are likely/very likely to stay in a vacation home, condo or rental apartment.
Getting To Destinations
Getting to a destination by air wasn’t off the itinerary either, 43% of LGBT travelers were comfortable booking flights compared to 35% of straight travelers taking to the air, according to Harris. IGLTA dug deeper asking queer travelers about their comfort levels on the length of flights from short-haul (3 hours or less) to long-haul (6 hours or more). The organization found that nearly half (45%) of LGBT travelers were comfortable taking a short-haul flight.
The longer the flight the less queer travelers felt safe. According to the study, medium-haul flights (3-6 hours) were less popular dropping by 10% to 35% of LGBT travelers being likely/very likely to fly. That number dropped even more to nearly 10% when it came to long-haul flights with 27% of respondents stating they are likely/very likely to book those flights.
Pride And Beyond
The Harris poll found that LGBTQI travelers were more comfortable attending large scale events such as concerts, theme parks, or going to a beach where in some cases there isn’t much social distancing to be had, 33% of LGBT respondents said they were comfortable compared to 25% of their straight peers.
IGLTA respondents equally (33%) said they were likely/very likely to attend an LGBTQ+ Pride Event (it is Pride Month after all), despite the fact that Pride organizers are opting for a virtual 24-hour Global Pride on June 27 in place of popular Pride celebrations in cities like London, New York, San Francisco, São Paulo, and Taipei.
Queer travelers (20%) also expressed interest in visiting an amusement park, according to IGLTA.
Some LGBTQI travelers also weren’t opposed to group trips (21%) the LGBTQI travel organization found.
Other popular North American destinations with LGBTQI travelers, such as Fire Island Pines, Provincetown (affectionately known as P-Town), and Key West, which are usually quite the party scene filled with mass crowds are toning down that message and tuning up the long lost quiet remote getaway harking back to a quarter-century ago.
Provincetown is well-known for its “large-scale events, bustling street life and LGBTQI nightlife,” reported Skift. That’s not the tone that’s being set by the popular Massachusetts destination’s marketing team this year. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and destinations adjusting to new health safety rules, Provincetown is pitching queer travelers a “quieter and gentler” experience that is a “time of nostalgia, of small crowds and big memories,” reported the travel industry trend analysis company.
All mass events have been cancelled for 2020, Provincetown’s director of tourism Anthony Fuccillo told Skift highlighting the fact that the “density of the crowd won’t be here.”
“It will be like 25 years ago when people would come to Provincetown just to enjoy the dunes and the beaches and riding the bike trails,” he said. “It will still be smaller crowds. People will have a wonderful time and create some great memories … Although I do picture it with people wearing masks, which is different.”
Other measures to ensure social distancing and public health policies would be enforced, Anthony said. He told Skift that visitors could expect closures of the beachside town’s busy nightlife. Packed bars were out this year.
He didn’t see the need for any additional measures when it came to the town’s beaches. Anthony said that they were large enough that even during a normal busy summer season “social distancing naturally happens,” reported Skift.
What LGBTQI Travelers Want During And After COVID-19
Well-traveled LGBTQI people expressed similar concerns about taking a vacation during the pandemic as their straight counterparts, according to Harris, but they weren’t going to let a virus stop them from putting on their traveling shoes and spreading their wings.
LGBTQI travelers’ only concerns about vacationing during a global pandemic were conditions at destinations to hotels.
One of the biggest factors that would affect queer travelers (60%) travel decisions compared to their fellow straight travelers (54%) when they are deciding on where to go, where to stay, and what to do, is reduced public health risks, according to Harris.
Darren Burn, founder of Out Of Office, a luxury LGBTQI travel company, and managing director of Travelgay.com, one of the top gay travel sites, pointed out to Skift that LGBTQI people view “risk” in a “different way to the mainstream” and there’s the simple fact that there’s a higher proportion of the community that is dual income, no kids, meaning they have more time and money to spend on travel.
Darren’s risk analysis is an observation that with nearly 70 countries around the world that criminalize same-sex attraction between adults and some even enforce the death penalty, LGBTQI travelers have a heightened awareness of risk and safety.
Additionally, gays have been living with the once deadly epidemic, HIV/AIDS (originally called GRID), for nearly 40 years without a cure or vaccine, but there is highly effective treatment, he told Skift.
LGBTQI travelers know how to live and move about the world with effective safety measures and treatment.
Those conditions – effective safety measures and treatment – have to be communicated. LGBTQI travelers demanded that hospitality and travel companies have to publicly show what they are doing to keep travelers safe.
As noted above travel deals and incentives will also help entice queer travelers to pack their bags.
How Did They Find Out?
Harris surveyed online 284 self-identified LGBT Americans out of 2,508 Americans over the age of 18 in total, within the United States about their travel plans this year May 6 and 8, 2020. The figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region, and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the US adult population. The survey included an oversample of LGBT respondents for statistical purposes.
IGLTA’s “The IGLTA Post Covid-19 LGBTQ+ Travel Survey” gauged an estimated 15,000 lesbian (6%), gay (77%), and bisexual (12%) adults who identified as men (88%), women (8%), and transgender (2%) between the ages of 25 and 64 (79%) from around the world attitudes toward leisure travel in the time of the coronavirus pandemic and recovery. A majority of the respondents came from the US, Brazil, Canada, France, and Mexico. The survey was conducted between April 16 and May 12, 2020, through the association’s global network, including members and media partners, with support from the IGLTA Foundation, according to the association’s May 26 news release announcing the results.
Book your next vacation with Girls That Roam Travel. Contact Heather Cassell at Girls That Roam Travel at 415-517-7239 or at .
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