In the past several years, Philadelphia has gone from a city that wasn’t on the radar for LGBT tourists to one now poised to break the top-10 list of most popular LGBT destinations.
LGBT market-research agency Community Marketing Inc. released its 14th-annual LGBT Tourism Study earlier this month, with Philadelphia ranking 11th in a list of top-25 most-visited LGBT destinations for both leisure and business in the nation.
New York City, San Francisco and Las Vegas took the top three spots, respectively.
Philadelphia came in at number 13 in 2008, after having debuted on the list at 16 in 2006 and maintaining that spot the following year.
“This is terrific. Just a couple of years ago we weren’t even in the top 20,” said Jeff Guaracino, vice president of communications for the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation.
The data was collected through an online survey that was filled out by 4,500 respondents. Survey participants were asked in which cities they spent at least one night in a hotel in the previous 12 months for either leisure or business.
Philadelphia came in at number 19 on the list of leisure destinations in 2006 and 2007, and at 16 in 2008 and 2009.
“The rankings usually don’t change much year to year but we do see people go up and down slowly over time, and Philadelphia is definitely one of the real winners,” said David Paisley, senior research director at CMI. “Philadelphia’s been slowly moving up and has really stood out for this.”
Survey respondents were asked to fill in the name of a city they thought has excelled in its LGBT outreach. Philadelphia came in fourth on this list, behind Las Vegas, San Francisco and Fort Lauderdale. While the city garnered the third spot in this category last year, Paisley said it’s “very impressive” that Philadelphia ranked as high as it did, especially in the company of more traditional LGBT tourist destinations.
“New York has been number-one on the list of top leisure and business travel destinations for forever, but it turns out that people think that Philadelphia is actually doing a much better job than New York in reaching out to LGBT tourists,” Paisley said.
Tami Sortman, president of the Philadelphia Gay Tourism Caucus, credited the continuing partnership among the city agencies and her organization for the higher ranking.
“The Philadelphia Gay Tourism Caucus is elated over the new findings that just came out, that Philadelphia is now rated 11th in the top 25 LGBT travel destinations,” she said. “This is due to the ongoing efforts of GPTMC and the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau working extremely hard to penetrate this lucrative market of gay and lesbian travelers.”
Added Sortman: “We are working hard to make it into the top 10: Philadelphia has more now to offer the gay and lesbian traveler than ever before.”
Guaracino said he thinks GPTMC’s ongoing “Get Your History Straight and Your Nightlife Gay” LGBT tourism campaign has had a significant impact on attracting LGBT visitors. He credited last year’s launch of the “We Your People” initiative, an advertising campaign that depicts real-life LGBT Philadelphians, with communicating the city’s vibrant LGBT presence to potential tourists.
Besides the specific LGBT outreach, Guaracino noted that the city included LGBT-focused messages in its mainstream tourism campaign “With Love,” launched this past summer, which he said have helped show visitors and residents that the LGBT community is an integral part of the city.
“This sends huge signals not just to gay and lesbian travelers who are reading gay media or who are in the subways or reading mainstream magazines where they see these advertisements, but also to the overall population that Philadelphia remains on the vanguard of inclusion and diversity,” he said.
Guaracino added he believes Philadelphia will soon be a top-10 LGBT destination.
“I absolutely think that’ll happen. And it’s because there are so many of us who are working so hard year-round to make that happen.”
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].