Gay men and tourism: destinations and holiday motivations

Little research attention has been given to the gay tourist market, the des tinations most commonly visited by gay men, or their holiday motivations an d experiences. This paper presents findings on the tourist destinations and holiday motivations of 562 gay men resident in southern England, who took part in a self-completion questionnaire survey to assess sexual activity an d sexual risk behaviours in holiday settings. The study was aimed at inform ing HIV prevention intiatives for gay men with a tourism focus. Samples of men were recruited through contact in bars/clubs in Brighten and via a post al survey conducted in association with a local lesbian/gay magazine. The b ar sample was younger than the postal sample but similar in terms of partne rship status, income, holiday motivations and travel patterns. The two samp les were thus combined for the purpose of analysis. The sample cannot be re garded as representative of gay men in general but does constitute a broad cross-section of gay men, mainly below the age of 40 on the commercial gay scene, supplemented by consumers of a local gay magazine. Gay men in the sa mple had travelled very widely in the previous five years, with southern Eu ropean destinations and the United States, in particular, attracting substa ntial proportions of men. Three dimensions of gay tourist motivation were i dentified:'gay social life and sex','culture and sights' and 'comfort and r elaxation'. Men who had visited southern European gay resorts (Gran Canaria , Ibiza and Mykonos) had significantly higher scores on the first dimension ; whereas men who had visited European cities (Amsterdam, Paris and Prague) and had travelled further afield (sub-Saharan Africa and Australia) had hi gher scores on the second dimension. The implications of the findings for t he development of tourism services for gay men, further research on gay tou rism, and sexual health promotion aimed at gay men on holiday are discussed . (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.