VEGAS INC Magazine - Latest Las Vegas business news, features and commentaries about gaming, tourism, real estate and more
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COVER STORY “The numbers show that the gay market is a higher educated market— two high-income earners in the same household often with no children. Isn’t that what we’re all searching for? It just makes good business sense.” The dozen fit, comfortable-in-their-own-(exposed)- skin men lounging around the Blue Moon pool one recent afternoon may not realize it, but they’re in the sweet spot for Las Vegas image makers. The customers at the city’s only gay resort are desirable business targets for a region that continues to suffer the economic devastation of the worst US recession in 70 years. They can’t legally marry here. Many don’t feel comfortable walking hand-in-hand down the alcohol-powered Las Vegas Strip on a busy evening. But they have spending power—lots of it— and with the liberalization of attitudes toward gay individuals, Las Vegas travel marketers have become increasingly aggressive and nuanced in their outreach to the segment. It’s no longer enough for marketers to simply slap a politically correct multi- colored rainbow flag on print and video ads while their own companies discriminate against their LGBT employees, denying them pay and benefits on a par with their straight counterparts. Several of the Blue Moon visitors told me they checked the Human Rights Campaign Equality Index to determine which Strip properties they will and— more importantly—won’t visit depending on those companies’ personnel policies toward gay workers. Deny health and life insurance benefits to same- sex partners? You’ll earn a low-score on the index, which can be found via smartphone applications. You’re sure to lose potential customers. Caesars Entertainment and Wynn Resorts earned perfect 100 scores on HRC’s most recent ranking. MGM Resorts International scored a respectable 85. Scoring zeros were Boyd Gaming; Loews Hotels, operator of a Lake Las Vegas hotel; and discount airlines AirTran and SkyWest. “We have options. We don’t have to spend our money where we’re mistreated,” said David, a 45-year-old researcher from the Midwest, who despite the evolving era of enlightenment on gay issues, was too skittish to share his last name. “Zero is an embarrassing score for any company in today’s business world. Why would I spend my money with someone who doesn’t respect who I am?” No one’s certain what percentage of Southern Nevada’s visitor total is composed of LGBT tourists. Statisticians and social scientists have long argued that up to ten percent of the US population is gay. The figure could be much larger. If that number is accurate, as many as four million yearly visitors to the region could be members of the demographic group, but even that’s a potentially flawed assumption. After all, visitors passing through McCarran International Airport aren’t asked to declare their sexual orientation. The average Las Vegas visitor spends $1,111 during a nearly five-day stay, according to the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority, which doesn’t keep separate figures for LGBT visitors. Similarly, there are no good numbers for the earnings and buying power of gay and lesbian tourists. Studies often tout the demographic’s superior income level when compared with the larger US population, but those 20 and a generational change that finds increasing numbers of young Americans having gotten beyond the beliefs of their parents and grandparents, finds a multitude of Las Vegas casino operators openly courting gay and lesbian visitors. Print ads, websites and Youtube spots tout the offerings of Wynn Las Vegas, Paris, Luxor, Mandalay Bay and several other Strip operators that have steadily increased their efforts to lure dollars that reflexively went to the traditionally open-minded resort destinations of Palm Springs, Key West, Miami Beach and Provincetown. The LVCVA produces suggestive ads—two women with shapely legs playing footsie, a pair of fit young men holding hands on a golf course as Wynn Las Vegas looms in the background. They’re alluring images at the start of what Wynn Las Vegas marketer Michael Weaver dubs the “post-gay consumer marketing world,” a period when ad agencies seek to reach individual customers with the promise of luxury, entertainment, good food and sensuality—a classic quartet of offerings on the modern-day Strip. Las Vegas consistently ranks among the top business figures often reflect the fact that many of those surveyed live in urban settings where wages tend to be higher. “Is gay income higher than the average person who lives in San Francisco? A lot of studies will show that to be the case,” says David Paisley, senior project director Community Marketing Inc., which conducts demographic studies of the economic power of the gay community. A 2009 Community Marketing study found that the average household income for gay men and women is $81,500, or about 80 percent higher than the figure for the typical US household. Forty percent of gay men reported household incomes in excess of $100,000 annually. Thirty-six percent of lesbians reported household incomes of more than $100,000. A recent study of LGBT travelers conducted by the Canadian Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce found that members of that market segment spend nearly twice as much per trip as their straight counterparts. They were also twice as likely to go on vacation or leisure trips as straights. The effort has been intensified by the economic collapse, as businesses throughout the country struggle to boost the bottom line. The push for gay equality has also liberated the business community. Many companies find they’re now free to target a market segment that was somewhat taboo just a decade ago. In the past, US business executives were largely afraid to reach out to gay customers, fearing a backlash from their mass, straight base. Few wanted to take the lead. But the legalization of gay marriage in New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Iowa and the District of Columbia; the spread of civil unions; anger over the repeal of gay marriage in California and leisure destinations for the 4,296 LGBT travelers surveyed by Community Marketing. New York, San Francisco and Las Vegas typically hold the top three spots, with lesbians between the ages of 18 and 54 choosing Las Vegas as their favorite getaway. Gay men widely preferred New York City and San Francisco. “Las Vegas is really show-driven and those shows have a very gay spin—Cher, Bette Midler, Cirque du Soleil, Elton John. It’s good for Las Vegas to bring them in,” says Community Marketing’s Paisley. “Las Vegas is its own animal. It’s true that Vegas doesn’t have its own gay neighborhood like other cities do,” Paisley says, “but from a tourism perspective, Las Vegas is about the Strip. Gays and lesbians are coming to Las Vegas for the same reason everyone is coming to Las Vegas.” There’s no “gay market,” just as there is no singular “Asian market,” argues a Community Marketing website. “The LGBT communities represent a broad and dynamic variety of interests, sensitivities, preferences and priorities. Those, plus variations in geographical location, age, income, relationship status, gender, sexual identity and more, make it even more important to discover which opportunities within LGBT will help you achieve your goals. Fine tuning your approaches based on highly refined and well-targeted matches within LGBT will make your outreach initiatives more efficient and cost-effective, and will significantly improve your marketing (return on investment).” A Harris Interactive survey of 2,576 US adults conducted between April 11 and 18 attempted to gauge travel plans between May and August. A total of 331 of those surveyed identified themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. Seventy percent of the LGBT adults said they will take more or the same number of leisure trips by car this summer. Seventy- two percent said their leisure travel would be the same length or longer than last summer. The average amount LGBT travelers expected to spend was $1,321 | 18 JULY 2011 |