Miami Beckons to Gays: Visit the Gay Riviera

MIAMI -- Just as Christian conservatives are making a fresh run to repeal Miami-Dade's gay-rights ordinance, local officials are joining hands with the gay community to market Greater Miami as the Gay Riviera.

"Our gay friendly environment extends beyond our local businesses to our government officials and policies," says a purple pamphlet published by the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau to lure gay and lesbian travelers. "Come see why Greater Miami is truly the Gay Riviera."

The $40,000 brochure is part of a broader strategy to expand gay tourism and commerce to Miami Beach and the rest of Miami-Dade County.

The effort includes a new Web site, GoGayMiami.com, sponsored by the Miami-Dade Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, and has been in the works for more than a year.

But it debuted just as opponents to two words in Miami-Dade's human-rights ordinance achieved a long-sought victory: a Sept. 10 referendum on whether to repeal an amendment barring discrimination based on "sexual orientation." The ordinance had already prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender and several other categories.

The Miami-Dade County Commission, which narrowly passed the amendment in 1998, reluctantly scheduled the referendum after the Miami-Dade Christian Coalition and Take Back Miami-Dade collected enough signatures to place the question on the ballot for the second time in 25 years.

Mayor Alex Penelas and many in Miami's business and civic communities had hoped to avoid a repeat of the divisive battle that convulsed Dade County in 1977, when singer Anita Bryant launched an anti-gay crusade that led voters to repeal the county's first gay-rights ordinance.

Tourism officials say the timing of the new marketing campaign was purely coincidental, but it underscores just how important Miami-Dade's gay community has become to the area's economy during the past quarter-century.

Not only is the new gay and lesbian chamber a trustee member of Greater Miami's chamber, but, as the 20-page brochure notes, Miami-Dade is home to two popular gay fund-raising festivals. The White Party and Winter Party, as well as a gay and lesbian film festival, draw thousands of visitors and pump millions into the economy every year.

"The decision was based purely on sales and marketing," said Rolando Aedo, vice president of marketing and tourism at the convention bureau. "We didn't give any thought to whether it would help one side or the other."

But Anthony Verdugo, chairman of the Miami-Dade Christian Coalition, has thought a lot about it. And he predicted that the Gay Riviera campaign will aid the repeal effort by mobilizing voters who object to spending taxpayer money on the promotion of "sexual tourism."

"The amendment has created a climate that encourages the promotion of tourism based on sexual behavior," he said. "We don't do it for polygamists or bigamists. We don't do it for people who cheat on their spouses. Why should we do it for homosexuals?"

The chair of SAVE Dade, which led the 1998 fight to reinstate the ordinance and now is battling to retain it, conceded she initially feared the marketing effort might galvanize amendment opponents. But now, Heddy Peña said she's convinced it will serve as a reminder to voters of the importance of keeping the welcome mat out for gays and lesbians.

"My first impression was this may not be a good time for this to happen, but I have since found people here want tourism not only to survive, but thrive," Peña said.

Surveys show gay travelers can make the difference between surviving and thriving, especially during tourism slumps like the one that has plagued Florida since Sept. 11.

Estimated at $54 billion a year, the gay travel market in the United States has stood out for its stability and resiliency in a post-Sept. 11 world. Gay-oriented travel magazines and trade groups report that gays, who travel more often and spend more than the general population, have been less willing to cancel travel plans and more willing to make new ones since the terrorist attacks.

"It boils down to two things: dual income and no kids," said Thomas Roth, president of Community Marketing, a San Francisco firm that helps the travel industry market to gays and lesbians. "People with money and no responsibility for kids have two spending priorities -- shopping and travel. When you start adding up the comparisons, you see why tourist offices and CVBs [convention and visitors bureaus] are interested in reaching out to the gay market."

Miami-Dade is not alone. Neighboring Key West and Fort Lauderdale have been marketing to gays for years -- and Roth said it's a new and rapidly growing trend in other places. Just 10 years ago, he said, one or two tourism organizations targeted gays; today, dozens around the world do.

The Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau is not among them, concentrating instead on families and empty-nesters, a spokeswoman said.

Soooo...I guess the question that needs to be asked is:

Is this really a hurricane warning?

;-)

I hear Sodom had a similar marketing campaign going, but the brochures were all destroyed along with the rest of the community.

Did you notice a whopper, an estimated $54 BILLION a year travel gay industry in the US alone?? Hmmmmmm....let me guess that the reporter wasn't force fed some bogus stat or is also gay??

My husband and I were in Key West last November - you must have seen us driving a rented white Dodge Neon from Alamo! Hope we didn't scare you too badly (PS you're absolutely right about the cruise ship passengers)

Hello from Savannah (slightly outside of it anyway) but I work for the City's Water and Sewer Bureau. Hope you come back soon, I've live here 15 years and still discover new things in the historic district all the time. And we sure need all the sales tax revenue we can get!

Did you notice a whopper, an estimated $54 BILLION a year travel gay industry in the US alone?

It seems excessive, until you realize that the tourism industry is huge, $749 billion annually. So $54 billion is less than 15% of that total.

Direct tourism sales of $397 billion resulted in total direct and indirect sales of $749 billion.
Bureau of Economic Analysis

Use the first number as the larger of the two is too easily manipulated.Still works out to being around 20% of the total.I dunno ;-)

Gay issues aside, it is astonishing how much money is spent on tourism. In the above statistic, the direct costs are how much is spent at restaurants, hotels, etc. The indirect costs are what the restaurants, etc, pay to their suppliers.

They are still statistics, and all statistics can be manipulated. In this case, the Department of Commerce compiles statistics about every industry, so they presumably have little reason to skew them one way or another. I have no idea where the $54 billion number in the article comes from.

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