Luxury tourism sector brings in 1 tn

(ANSA) - Milan, February 8 - 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.