CAPE TOWN AMONG TOP 20 GAY HOTSPOTS

A new international survey has found that Cape Town will be among the top twenty gay travel destinations in 2013.

This was revealed in the results of the largest ever research study of the LGBT travel market – the ‘Out Now Global LGBT2020 Tourism Report’ 2013 edition.

The report, released by LGBT business networking association Out Now Business Class, reveals that France is now the number one most desired destination country for more than 6% of the total global tourism industry who identify as LGBT.

The USA has lost its top spot, falling from first to third this year. One of the biggest improvers as the industry heads towards 2013 – and apparently basking in the Olympics afterglow – is the UK, which moved up from fourth place to second.

“This year it seems that Team GB can take credit for a few more wins as both London and the UK have seen significant improvements in their appeal to this market,” commented Darren Cooper, Senior Consultant at Out Now.

Out Now’s research showed that in 2012 the total tourism spend by LGBT people globally will exceed USD$165 billion.

“When you consider the scale of the LGBT market opportunity, moving up or down a notch can mean hundreds of millions difference in tourism revenues for a destination,” said Cooper.

Talk of the Eurozone crisis has not deterred LGBT travellers who have pushed Greece up the rankings to appear in the top ten most desired gay destinations globally. Italy also moved up while Spain dropped two places.

In terms of most popular gay cities, New York has remained in the number one position for the second year running. However NYC is being very closely challenged by Rio de Janeiro in second place, which moved up one place and pushed Sydney down to third place.

London has moved ahead of Paris this year, which has now fallen one place behind traditional gay favourite San Francisco.

“Interestingly London was the top European destination for many markets such as the US and Australian samples, but respondents from Latin America were generally more interested in Paris than in London,” said Cooper.

Cape Town came in at number 19 on the city list, just after Rome at number 18 and ahead of Miami, which is in 20th place.

The LGBT2020 global tourism report for 2013 is the result of three years of research data collected from almost 100,000 respondents in 24 countries, undertaken in 12 languages

Data Source: Out Now Global LGBT2020 Study www.OutNowBusinessClass.com.