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LVCVA ad aimed at LGBT travelers getting national attention
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The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is launching an ad campaign targeted towards the LGBT community.
Thursday
24 January 2013
2 a.m.
A Las Vegas ad campaign unveiled in June got a second wind this week after a national publication called attention to the city’s bid to attract gay and lesbian travelers, a lucrative market.
The Huffington Post on Monday ran a story about the "sizzling" Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority campaign. Several other media outlets followed.
The ads depict a conservative-looking heterosexual couple standing among a group of same-sex couples, with a tagline that reads, “Everyone’s welcome ... even straight people.” Another similarly tagged ad uses the imagery of a station wagon parked among sports cars in a valet line.
The ads first ran in LGBT-specific magazines Curve, Instinct, Passport, Metrosource and Out.
The Post reported that photos of the campaign are making the rounds on online sites Buzzfeed, Towleroad and New Now Next, among others.
The LVCVA has worked for seven years to attract the gay market to Southern Nevada. Same-sex partners generally have higher travel budgets and spend more freely than their straight counterparts. The LVCVA even has a staffer dedicated to diversity marketing, which includes efforts to attract gay travelers.
In 2011, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that 10 percent of the nation’s population is gay. At the time, there were 15 million gay adults in the United States, with a median age of 45. They had buying power of $690 million, and their average household income was $82,000 a year. About 35 percent made more than $100,000 a year.
Sixty-four percent are college graduates, compared with the national average of 29 percent, and 85 percent take annual vacations, compared with 64 percent of their straight counterparts.
Surveys have found that Las Vegas is one of the best cities at marketing to gay travelers. The International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association perennially ranks Las Vegas among the top five domestic markets for gay travelers. The city competes with New York, San Francisco and Key West, Fla., for the top spot.
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Las Vegas is our home. Robert and I love Las Vegas and our livelihoods depend on tourists.But our national reputation as a travel destination is a joke. So many wonderful things are happening downtown from our new Smith Center for the Performing Arts to the zip line experience at Fremont Street. Las Vegas missed the boat on capturing the Gay travel dollar. Gone, kaput. In these tumultuous times for gay folks, we are looking to spend our disposable income in environments that are politically friendly and welcoming. Travelers like Robert and myself research ("google") places that treat their local citizens with dignity and respect. Nevada's domestic partner law is the laughing stock of all the states that have them. No teeth in them . And mayor Goodman has a reputation of being so clueless to the aspirations of the gay community she comes off as unintentionally hostile. She represents a city where 2 complete strangers, a man and a woman, can meet at a casino bar, walk across the street and marry, and yet her own gay citizens can't. She can be an important voice nationally as the country moves in the direction of equality and she won't. An important article showed the number of mayors at a conference of mayors signed on to a pledge to support marriage equality HAS GONE FROM 80 TO OVER 300. Mayor Goodman is missing in action. I know many posters here could care less. But if you read the travel blogs, we're takin a hit...and its hurting.
We do not need to change the Nevada domestic partner law. It is fine as it is and there is absolutely no basis to criticizing the law or Mrs. Goodman,our mayor. I think the Convention authority does a pretty good job promoting Las Vegas for both gay and straight people. If anything they should get credit for their new campaign.
Don't believe me LVCVA? Link onto the Huffington Post article mentioned in this column and READ THE COMMENTS. Shameful. And as a couple who loves Las Vegas Robert and I find it embarrassing...and hard to defend. To the LVCVA...you can keep trying, but until things change, you're throwing your money away.
The domestic partner law is all encompassing, even giving us community property rights. Of course, in the usual Nevada way there is no enforcement. NV was embarrassed nationally about the hospital incident a few months ago. In a real state, the AG would have stepped in and cited the hospital. Not a word. Sandoval was silent. No functioning legislature to investigate. The law is a toothless wonder. LVCVA needed the law to push its wares, ie the casinos. How about it setting aside a few million to enforce the law?
If you really want to see a boost in tourism get the legislature to legalize gay marriage and Marijuana. Then watch the dollars flow. I'll be ready to invest in a gay wedding chapel/pot emporium.
@NVFisherman I take it you're straight thereby you have no dogs in this fight. A "Pretty good" candidate never won any races.