Last month, Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act set off a firestorm of negative press. Perceived as a way to discriminate against the LGBT community, Indiana’s tourism industry took a major PR hit and major corporations including Gap, Apple and Levis publicly slammed the measure.
Despite a band-aid effort to fix the act and smooth things over with LGBTs — a “civil rights exemptions” edit was added to the amendment, and you can read the full language of that addition here — the damage had already been done. It’s so bad, in fact, Indiana's tourism agencies pooled $2 million and hired PR expert Poter Novelli in an attempt to "remind the world that Hoosiers welcome everyone."
But a recent Ad Week article notes that Indiana’s downfall is an opportunity for other states to court LGBT tourism. As Ad Week notes: “If you're going to be a gay-friendly destination, now's a pretty good time to show it.”
Take Houston, for example: Its “My Gay Houston” campaign launched as a website five years ago. Now, in the days following Indiana, that campaign is extending to national ad buys in Out and The Advocate, with a video component that launched last week.
Other cities surrounding The Hoosier State are also making a play for LGBT dollars. Cleveland is attempting to build on the LGBT love it gained while hosting the 2014 Olympics. And “cities in southwest Michigan, according to a Detroit News item from March 23, "are looking to market themselves as LGBT-friendly."
Atlantic City, in an effort to supplement its shrinking gaming dollars, will be hosting three major LGBT events in the coming months.
Mike McDowell, vice president of cultural tourism at the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board, says that while it’s exciting to see so many destinations courting the LGBT dollar, he understands how Indiana business owners feel.
In the year’s following the passing on Prop 8 in California, he says the state’s businesses – including Los Angeles, where gay visitors spend “four times as much as the average tourist” – all suffered.
"All of our destinations, including the gay-friendly ones, were tarred with the same brush," McDowell said.
For more on how major destinations are courting LGBT tourist, read the full article from Ad Week.
