To Love and Be Loved in NYC } Gays Come to the city for Love and Brotherhood

To Love and Be Loved / Gay Liberation in New York City, a photo by Tony the Misfit on Flickr.

http://gothamist.com/

No doubt about it, the gays just think New York City is fabulous. Lesbians do too, though they're reasons for coming can be a little more staid. Community Marketing has released its 16th annual Gay & Lesbian tourism report [PDF] and when it comes to leisure and business travel, American homosexuals choose New York City hands down. No wonder we're pushing out another gay tourism campaign!

For the report, CM talked to 6,700 LGBT folks around the country and, though people still think of San Francisco before they think of New York when it comes to the gay friendly towns, we came in on top left and right. We scored as the most popular visited destination in the country and as people's favorite destination. Interestingly though, despite the reputation gays have for disposable income, far more LGBT travelers consider themselves to be "economy" travelers than "luxury."

As for why they come here? The biggest draw for men and women (62 and 69 percent selected as a motivator, respectively) is our reputation for being welcoming to LGBT crowds, a rep boosted by the introduction of gay marriage (which attracted 15 percent of gay men here and 27 percent of lesbians). And both groups come in droves based on friend's recs (54 percent of lesbians and 47 percent of gay men). But the city's appeal to the two groups changes after that though.

While lesbians come to visit gay hoods (35 percent), go to gay bars and parties (33 percent) and to attend LGBT events (32 percent) gay men seem to be especially attracted to the party and bar scene (47 percent) and visiting gay neighborhoods (45 percent). Another interesting difference? While more than a quarter of the gay men who came to town included "sexual adventure" as one of their reasons for coming (28.7 percent), only 5.6 percent of lesbians counted that as a motivator. Some stereotypes, it seems, run deep.