The luxury sector has been
seeing the most growth in the international tourism market for
several years but the niche market for lesbian, gay, bisexual,
and transgender (LGBT) couples has increased every year for the
past three and is thus becoming an important segment.
Italy is, however, one of the countries that have not yet
developed offers for this type of traveller.
These results presented on Wednesday at Palazzo Marino in
Milan are from two studies sponsored by the BIT 2017
International Tourism Exchange (to be held April 2-4 n Milan)
and conducted by the Master in Tourism Economics at Milan's
Bocconi University on the two most 'interesting' segments at the
moment: luxury tourism and LGBT tourism.
The study on luxury tourism showed how the concept of luxury
in travel is connected ever less with material goods and ever
more on experiences, with challenges involving exclusiveness,
personalization and market segmentation.
The luxury sector produces turnover for firms around the
world of over 1 trillion euros: 183 billion from hotels (+4%
over the past year), 112 billion from food & beverages (+4%) and
2 billon from the luxury cruise segment (+5%).
Europe and North America account for 64% of the origins of
those going on luxury trips, but spending is increasing across
all the regions of the world and the Asia Pacific area is
expected to grow the most between now and 2025.
The main activities of luxury travellers are gourmand
dinners, tours and learning new skills, followed by culture,
nature and entertainment.
The study on LGBT tourism instead analyzed available data on
this sector both as concerns destinations and those working in
the sector, which has an estimated value of between 195 and 211
billion dollars per year at the international level.
The study on travel expenditure on a sample of 130,000 LGBT
people living in 18 countries found that the spending increased
over the past 3 years in almost all the countries and especially
in India (+5.7%), Colombia (+4.7%) and Turkey (+3.4%).
The spending on trips by LGBT residents of the three main
markets (the US, Brazil and Japan) account for 51% of the world
market. In Europe, the research analyzed official tourism
promotion websites of the 28 member states.
Of the 29 websites analyzed, 16 have a section for LGBT
travellers but Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Italia and Romania do
not.
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