New York City Wants More Big Gay Dollars

Developers will open the first gay boutique hotel in New York City's Hell's Kitchen, hoping to cash in on a growing trend towards gay-oriented tourism. Ian Reiser and partner, Mati Weiderpass, both of Parkview Developers, plan a $20 million facelift for an old hotel, creating a 123-room hotel called The Out NYC, along with a spa, restaurant, cafe and shops. The hotel will also house a 10,000-square-foot, 750-guest night club. The partners no doubt want to ride the rising wave of gay and lesbian tourism in New York City.
BNET (that means me) wrote about New York City's Rainbow Pilgrimage campaign back in April, when city officials decided they wanted gay and lesbian tourism to help fix their $4 billion budget deficit. The campaign was scheduled for the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in Manhattan, often considered the start of the gay civil rights movement. An estimated 10 percent of the 47 million people who visited New York in 2008 were gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender, a population that spends about $70.3 billion on travel in the United States, according to Community Marketing, a gay and lesbian market research company.

The city spent $1.9 million marketing New York City as a "rite of passage" for the gay or lesbian traveler. That included print ads in magazines and outdoor ads in Spain and the United Kingdom. Now that the 40th anniversary is over, the city has no intention of forgoing gay travel dollars.

"This is a huge, untapped market," Tim Roth of Community Marketing (yes, them again) told the New York Daily News. "Gays and lesbians travel much more often than their straight counterparts, and New York City is the No. 1 destination for gay people in North America." (Indeed, it's hard to believe there's not ONE gay boutique hotel in New York City. When I lived in comparatively tiny Palm Springs, there were plenty.)

Although the plans require apprival by the city, the city has made it clear that it wants to attract gay and lesbian tourism dollars. What better way solidify its gay and lesbian tourism campaign than to nurture gay-and-lesbian attractions?

Photo courtesy of Axel Hotels