LGBTQ+ & Tourism

Jens Schadendorf: Queer people are customers of products and services. The investment consultancy LGBT Capital estimates their annual purchasing power potential at over 4.7 trillion US dollars per year. That is significantly more than Germany's gross domestic product. It is clear that the queer purchasing power potential is not only, but primarily, to be found in rich, westernized countries. Many companies have understood the economic opportunity associated with this and have developed products tailored to the queer target group.

In addition, younger, well-educated people in particular are much more aware of how companies deal with social issues and disadvantaged groups such as the LGBTQ+ community. They base their decisions on this - even when choosing their travel destinations. This applies to weekend trips as well as longer vacations.

It is no coincidence that more and more cities - from Amsterdam to London, Sidney and San Francisco to Cologne, Vienna and Zurich - are specifically investing in queer friendliness. They are marketing it aggressively and attracting more than just millions of LGBTQ+ tourists. City leaders have long known that this strategy also attracts countless non-queer supporters of the queer community.

Jens Schadendorf: There are good reasons why researching this is not easy. How do you determine that someone belongs to the queer community? And are you even allowed to record it?

But yes, the global LGBTQ+ travel market is growing rapidly. Studies estimate it at around 357 billion US dollars by 2025. By 2032, they expect an average annual growth rate of almost 8 percent, which corresponds to an expansion of the market to more than 600 billion US dollars. It will therefore become even more attractive for tour operators, service providers and destinations.

Jens Schadendorf: I already said that politicians in many large cities have long known that queer friendliness pays off. But they have also understood that they have to do something about it. The queer guests - and the non-queer guests who sympathize with them - must also be able to credibly experience the associated cosmopolitanism, tolerance and appreciation - in public spaces, hotels, restaurants and so on. Only when something like a queer-friendly culture has been created or is in the process of being created will the marketing as a queer-friendly destination pay off. In this respect, the task of politics is a continuous one. It is not a seasonal job, for example for the next Pride event in the summer, but a year-round job.

Jens Schadendorf : You get some interesting figures - for example in economic studies with relevance to tourism. A study of twelve English-speaking Caribbean countries, for example, estimates that discrimination against LGBTQ+ people costs the region up to 4.2 billion US dollars a year. This corresponds to 5.7 percent of the region's gross domestic product (GDP). The main causes are unused human capital, higher healthcare costs, lower productivity, reduced investment - and above all: losses in tourism because travelers avoid discriminatory destinations.

Jens Schadendorf: Not all studies show such large GDP losses. Nevertheless, there is something to be said about it. For example: countries that discriminate against queer people pay a high economic price in the long term - including as travel destinations.

Incidentally, this also applies to regions and smaller communities - which brings me to Austria. Tourism is a central, vital economic factor for the country. It is well known that Vienna is queer-friendly. But it could also be worthwhile for individual federal states and municipalities to focus specifically and credibly on queer friendliness. Of course, this would be a task that local politics and the travel and tourism industry would have to tackle together.

However, smaller or medium-sized hotels in the countryside or in small towns could also implement their own learning processes - for example, by learning from large chains. Hilton, Marriott and Accor, for example, have long since made LGBTQ+ inclusion part of their core strategy, train their staff accordingly, make credible offers and more. They know why: on average, the queer community is considered to be particularly keen to travel and willing to spend.

A look at the usual travel platforms could also inspire the "little ones" in the regions and municipalities to initiate credible changes in order to exploit the economic potential associated with queer travelers. Travelers have long been able to find LGBTQ+ inclusive offers in the TraveProud section of Booking.com, for example.