Community Marketing Inc. just released the data from their annual survey ranking U.S. destinations most visited by the LGBT community. The top five leisure destinations for 2009 were as follows:
1) New York
2) Las Vegas
3) San Francisco
4) Los Angeles / West Hollywood
5) Chicago
New York is no surprise. But Vegas as number two? That surprised me. Yes, Vegas is a huge tourist magnet, but the gay scene there sucks. Certainly if this were a survey taking each city's gay scene into consideration, the findings would be very different.
The full list, which accounts for both business and leisure trips, is as follows. The figures represent the percentage of the 4,726 American LGBT survey takers who traveled to the city in the past 12 months and spent at least one night in a hotel. I'm surprised Seattle and Philadelphia did as well as they did. Perhaps Philadelphia's gay tourism campaign is working.
1) New York City: 32%
2) San Francisco: 27%
3) Las Vegas: 26%
4) Chicago: 25%
5) Los Angeles / West Hollywood: 24%
6) Washington, DC: 23%
7) Fort Lauderdale: 17%
8) San Diego: 15%
9) Orlando: 14%
9) Seattle: 14%
11) Boston: 13%
11) Philadelphia: 13%
13) Palm Springs 12%
13) Atlanta: 12%
13) Miami: 12%
16) Dallas: 11%
16) Denver: 11%
16) Phoenix/Tempe/Scottsdale: 11%
19) New Orleans: 10%
20) Napa County, CA: 9%
20) Provincetown, MA: 9%
20) Sonoma County, CA: 9%
23) Portland, OR 8%
23) Baltimore: 8%
23) Tampa/St. Petersburg: 8%
I think the business trips are skewing these numbers. It would be interesting to see the leisure/vacation trips.
ReplyDeleteVegas is a shocker. I never thought of it as a gay destination (nor a business destination).
Interesting.