The future for gay and lesbian tourism in Victoria is looking bright, with Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews promising to back LGBT+ initiatives for the state.
President of Visit Gay Australia Mario Paez has already written to the newly reelected Premier to offer GALTA’s expertise in steering his election pledge of boosting gay and lesbian travel to the state.
“Prior to the election he identified the 40th anniversary of Melbourne Pride in 2021 as a reason to inject new funding, and he has promised $6.4 million in support of services and initiatives for the gay community, including $200,000 to help boost regional and rural pride events,” Mario said.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews.
Paez said it was also time that the LGBT+ community stepped away from the niche traveller marketing label, and was instead considered the same as any mainstream market segment.
He said he hoped Victoria would take on GALTA’s experience and guidance in assisting Visit Victoria to achieve the best outcomes.
Image: Peter Hershey/Unsplash
“LGBT+ travellers should no longer be considered a niche market group – like every other segment of the marketplace, we travel for adventure, for honeymoons, for culture and food, for luxury, camping, nature experiences, business and VFR. You need to reach us in the same way you tailor any other market segment – not as a niche, but as dedicated experiential travellers.”
President of Visit Gay Australia Mario Paez
Visit Victoria is not a member of GALTA yet, however the network will be approaching them in the very near future to hopefully rectify that.
“But that is just the paperwork – what we’re interested in is assisting the Victorian government in developing a truly contemporary, exciting and effective approach to attracting LGBT+ tourists across all demographics and target groups,” Paez said.
“Once we get one state on board with this, my sincere hope is that all of the others will follow suit.”
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