It was starting to be a trend even before the pandemic, that people were visiting lesser-known queer-friendly towns. With people staying a little closer to home, the opportunity is ripe for your funky, cute, odd, queer culture to shine.
Convention & Visitor Bureaus know that tapping into their city’s culture helps them tell great stories. And those that include their LGBTQ+/Queer culture as part of this effort know the flavor this adds. What better way to show your destination is unique and welcoming than talking about drag brunches, theme parties, and gay sports leagues.
You might be thinking, “My city is too small for this type of effort”, but in most cases, you’d be wrong. Every destination is full of queens; you might just need help finding them. If you have a Pride celebration, a queer film festival, and at least one gay bar or themed night at a mainstream bar, you have stories to tell. And these stories will resonate with a much larger audience. In fact, in a recent Google survey, 64% took action after seeing an ad that they considered diverse or inclusive, and 71% of LGBTQ+ consumers were more likely to interact with an ad that authentically represented their sexual orientation.
Our approach is to help the CVB connect to the local LGBTQ+ community by creating an advisory group made up of key movers and shakers. This group typically meets quarterly, becomes a sounding board for the CVBs efforts, and as the group grows and works together, they start to find partnerships and synergy that benefits everyone.
This work, while benefitting the CVB is also incredibly important to helping the queer culture of your city thrive.
We know every destination is looking for great content to promote as we come out of our travel paralysis. Let us help you bring some queer content to the front. And remember, we don’t recommend you only post in June. You need to have LGBTQ+ content sprinkled in all year through.