Motivation for pink tourism

Name: Petra Polgar

Class: D1

Tutor: Mr. Peter Robin

Submission Date: 2014.11.16.

1. Introduction

Gay and lesbian tourism, known as pink tourism has recently started receiving

attention in the hospitality market (Ballegaard and Chor, 2009). According to

Holloway (2004), and Ballegaard and Chore (2009) destinations all around the

world seek to improve their tourism products, advertise and market their

innovative offers to different segments in order to attract visitors.

Millions of dollars are spent each year on travel therefore the competition

between countries, like the Netherlands or the United Kingdom is becoming

stronger and stronger. They try to offer the best holiday experiences in order to

gain more money from the tourists (Wall and Mathieson, 2006; Mowforth and

Munt, 2007). In the literature, lesbian and gay tourists are suggested to be

especially a lucrative segment (Guaracino, 2007). Tourism professionals did not

concern themselves with gay and lesbian travellers until they figured out how

much revenue a “pink tourist” generates for them. Mintel’s holiday market report

produced in 2006 highlighted that 1.25 million overseas holidays were taken by

gay people, representing a value of £658 million. After this money, which was

generated through gay tourism, was referred to as “pink dollars”(Huges, 2006).

According to Clift and Forrest (1998) pink tourism is becoming a huge market

segment especially in the western societies. Regarding the destinations,

homosexuals mostly go on holiday abroad because their higher income makes it

easier. It doesn’t mean that all the homosexuals are well educated and have good

qualifications (Badgett, 2001).

Talking about motivation is a driving force to take actions. Motivation for gay

tourism can be for many reasons; first of all they try to get to know new places,

people and other cultures. Travel motivation can be defined “ as the global

integrating network of biological and cultural forces which gives value and

direction to travel choices, behavior and experience ”(Pearce, Morrison &

Rutlegde, 1998). In the research of Clift & Forest (1999) it shows that one of the

main motivation points for homosexuals to go and visit famous gay destination is

to relax.
2. Literature review

2.1. Concept, theories and models on motivation of gay and lesbian tourists

2.1.1.Push and pull factors

Motivation is defined as a process in which individuals will act or behave in a

way to reach certain goals (Mullen & Johnson, 1990). In this chapter the reader

will see different types of motivation for lesbian and gay tourism. When

discussing about motivation we can divide it into two main parts, the first one is

the question “what”. So what is the factor, which motivates people to reach their

goals? The second one is “how” motivation occurs (Luthans et al., 1998).

According to Hughes (2002) lesbians and gays have the same reason to go on

holidays as heterosexuals, they want to do something different from their

everyday life and get opportunities to go on holidays. The first factor which the

reader will recognize is the push and pull factors according to pink tourism. Push

factors are the internal factors when people want to travel and they have

inspiration for traveling (Dann, 1977). One of the main push factors is always to

try to escape from everyday life. On the other hand we also have the pull factors,

which are external factors, which are psychological motives. It should create

desires and motives for traveling. According to Pritchard (2000) the biggest

range of motivation is related to sexuality, they try to escape from the word of

heterosexuals and find a place where they can be themselves and get an

opportunity to feel safe and accepted. Researches show that gay events are one

of the main pull factors in gay tourism (Pitts, 1997). Also when it comes to the

pull factors homosexuals take different aspect into consideration, first of all is
the price, second of all is the location of the destination and the third most

important is, if the place is near to an LGBT neighborhood (Clift, 1999).

2.1.2.Hierarchy of Needs: Abraham Maslow

In the following paragraph the research is going to talk about how the hierarchy

of needs is related to the tourism of homosexuals. According to Maslow’s (1943)

hierarchy of needs, it shows that after people have met their basic needs, they

also aim to reach a higher level of needs. Needs can be motivators, but only if the

person is unsatisfied. In the following figure the reader can visualize Maslow’s

Hierarchy of Needs (Ibid).

Figure 1: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

According to this figure relationships and rest are basic psychological needs, so

in a case of homosexual couples they motivated to go on holidays and having

relationship (Maslow, 1943). But homosexuals also need to belong to their love

as it is mentioned as belongingness and love needs on the figure above.

2.1.3 Alderfer Continuum of Needs

On the other hand there is Alderfer’s continuum of needs model, which

approaches from a different side regarding the motivation of gay tourists.

Alderfer divides Maslow’s figure into 3 different parts, based on three different

sets of needs, first of all it is the existence needs, which cover the psychological

and safety needs (Mullins, 2001). Secondly it is the relatedness needs, which

plays the biggest role in this research paper, because it is related to the

relationship in the social environment. Alderfer also mentioned, that each and

every person goes through different levels of needs that is why they are more

continuum than hierarchy (Ibid).

 Figure 2: Alderfer’s Continuum of Needs

As the figure above also shows Alderfer classifies the love and relationship

within the society as relatedness. This can be one of the factors for homosexuals

that they try to choose their destination carefully (Mullins, 2001). As already

mentioned, homosexuals try to enjoy their holidays, but sometimes it is just

impossible for them because there are always people who can’t handle with

homosexuals and they will abuse them. By that way they are unable to spend

their vacation peacefully (Ibid).

2.2 Existing Empirical Research

2.2.1. Destination Choices

In this chapter the writer is going to talk about which are the famous

destinations regarding gay and lesbian tourism and what are the different

reasons that they choose these places.

To start with many homosexuals are afraid of the risk when they choose a

specific destination, because in some places they are not allowed to book a
double room during their holiday or not allowed to enter into bars or

restaurants (Hughes, 2002). As a consequence gay men avoid certain places,

towns, cities, sometimes entire countries where they would not feel comfortable.

Other studies also shown that gay and lesbian tourists have higher risk of

becoming a victim, because some people are unable to tolerate these kind of

relationship and try to attack them during their holiday (Brophy, 2004).

The risks of visiting different destinations are assessed in many ways, mainly if

the traveller is a first-time traveller. Gay and lesbian travellers are influenced by

the media and by word of mouth, because those, who are travelling for the first

time are more likely to rely on their friends or what anybody is telling them

about that specific destination (Gunn, 1988).

Travel guides and promotional magazines often point out that locals may have

some issues with gay people, but these guides or magazines also give some

advice for travellers to be sensitive to locals and their culture and religions

(Lavers, 2004). Sometimes the travellers can find particular websites for gays

and lesbians when travelling abroad to be aware of local laws and attitudes

(Ibid).

A primary indicator of gay and lesbian destinations is advertisements and

campaigns for particular gay destinations (Gartner and Bachri, 1994). As the

writer already discussed there are many different issues, which affects the

holiday of a homosexual couple. In the following paragraphs the writer will

discuss which are the most popular destinations for homosexuals and why.
2.2.2. Most Popular Destinations

2.2.2.1. Destinations and festivals in Europe

To start with there are many different destinations where homosexuals can go

on holidays as the previous paragraph also mentioned. This section focuses on

famous places in Europe.

One of them is Greece, and in the country itself there are cities, like Crete, which

is one of the most visited and Mykonos, which is famous for its beaches and night

clubs, particularly popular for its gay nightlife (Miles, 2000). It is also popular

between the Greeks but you can find there many international gay tourists so

that is probably the gayest scene of Greece as it was mentioned already above

(Ibid).

On the next figure below the reader can observe which are the most visited

places within Greece and outside of Europe too.

Figure 3: Popular Destinations for Pink Tourism

The most popular destination in Greece is Crete, but many people visit Mykonos

because of its gay nightlife and also the other reason is because it has the sea and
sun so people can go and relax, and if they want they have the opportunity to go

on different trips or discover the local culture, the different types of restaurants

and last but not least the different night clubs (Miles, 2003).

On the other hand if we talk about destinations in Europe there are major

festivals as well which attracts homosexual people from all over the word and by

these festivals they get to know the county and they want to come back for they

holidays (Heckert, 2000). An example is Gay Pride Events, which are the largest

homosexual festivals worldwide. In Europe the biggest festival is called

Europride, it takes place in Cologne every year and attracts more than 1.5 million

visitors (Zarra & Ward, 2003). Nowadays the government try to put some

political campaign into these festivals, but fortunately these gay and lesbian

festivals try to avoid as much as they can, they try to focus on to celebrate and

show gay and lesbian ‘culture’ (Field, 1995).

2.2.2.2 Destinations in the United States

On the other hand there are many different destinations and festivals as well,

one of the famous destination overseas is Palm Springs in California

(USA)(Mellor, 2002).

The reasons why the majority of homosexual people travel there is they want to

enjoy their holidays; it has many different opportunities for those who want to

relax and just spend their vacation time. For example in Palm Springs can be

found different gay hotels, resorts and the nightlife is also attractive for

homosexuals (Copestake, 2004). It is also known for the famous White Party

during Easter (Ibid).

3. Conclusion

In conclusion pink tourism is very important for the tourism industry as they

spend more and more money for travelling. This research paper has discussed

how difficult it is for homosexuals to find the perfect holiday destination and

how many different aspects they have to take into consideration when they

choose a place. Even though gay people seek to go on similar holidays as the rest

of the population, they have to face with many different issues. They try to find

the more gay friendly destinations, because of the previously mentioned impacts

can affect their holiday experience and influence their future choices. They are

also afraid that wherever they go, people will always look at them like they are

not like normal people and in certain countries people may attack them too. The

reason why most of these destinations are famous is because they already have a

well-prepared gay and lesbian community or they are trying to tolerate more

and more homosexuals, because they generate more money for the holiday

destination. When it comes to the different festivals they attract many people at

the same time and they are hoping that the travellers will come back to visit the

place again.

To conclude gay and lesbian tourists aim is to go on holidays as heterosexual

people, without being terrified and scared of what other people think of them

and when they have to be afraid what is going to happen with them in places

they haven’t been yet. As a final point gay and lesbian tourist do not have so

much voice in these kinds of researches or most of them are stereotyped. Hope

with this research people will be more interested in pink tourism and

homosexuals will earn their place in the future in the tourism industry.
To sum up with the writer would like to recommend to make some research in

the marketing strategies and campaigns towards gay and lesbian people in the

future.
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