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 Travel & Outdoors | June 2007 
After Brokeback Mountain, Calgary is Marketing Itself as Gay-Friendly
 Lisa Kadane - CanWest News Service
| | Since the release of the film Brokeback Mountain, filmed in and around Calgary, Tourism Alberta has tried to lure fans to the area. |
Call it the Brokeback phenomenon. Not only did last year's Oscar nominee for Best Picture catapult Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal to superstardom, it thrust Alberta onto the stage as a scenic must-see for travellers. But not just any wayfarers.
If the characters played by Heath and Jake could find love in the Rocky Mountains, surely gays and lesbians from around the world would have similar luck -- or, at the very least, a fabulous holiday.
Yes, San Francisco, there's a new destination on the gay and lesbian travel radar. Though Cowtown hotels and attractions aren't yet flying rainbow-striped flags, it's fair to say the city is flaunting more colours than just red (necks).
Tourism Calgary and many of its partners are embracing this growing travel niche.
"It's an absolutely massive potential market," says Paul Newmarch, media marketing co-ordinator for Tourism Calgary. "That whole Brokeback Mountain thing, that really opened the door for us."
Gay and lesbian travellers began expressing interest in coming to see where the movie was filmed. They also started asking the question: "Is Calgary gay-friendly?"
The city couldn't afford to say, "No."
According to research by Mintel International Group, the gay holiday market was worth $1.55-billion in 2006, with 1.25 million holidays taken by gay travellers.
Canada is poised to rake in a good chunk of that change -- the country was ranked No. 1 as the world's best travel destination for gays and lesbians (in part because of its stance on gay marriage), according a survey by Community Marketing Inc., a company that tracks the spending habits of American gays and lesbians.
Still, Calgary has a long way to go before its name rolls off gay travellers' tongues as easily as, say, Puerto Vallarta.
In the summer 2007 issue of American magazine The Out Traveler, Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal are named Canada's top five gay-friendly tourist destinations. Calgary isn't mentioned.
Tourism Calgary would like to change that. The organization is working with a number of gay media outlets as well as local gay-friendly restaurants and hotels, to get the word out.
Newmarch says some hotels are engaging in "sensitivity training" so staff won't even blink when a homosexual couple arrives to check in.
"We are definitely promoting Calgary as a gay (friendly) destination ... but the challenge for us is that some of our partners aren't necessarily gay-friendly-ready," he says.
One that is ready is Hotel Arts, a boutique hotel located in Calgary's Beltline, not too far from Twisted Element, the city's largest gay nightclub.
The five Fairmont hotel properties in Alberta are also officially gay-friendly.
Such accommodations are helping boost Calgary's cachet among gay and lesbian travellers, says Steve Polyak, a native Calgarian and co-owner of GayCalgary.com and GayCalgary magazine. But not everyone is welcoming same-sex couples with open arms.
Even though such attitudes persist, Polyak is positive about Calgary and talks excitedly about all it has to offer. Beyond the restaurants, nightclubs and proximity to those Brokeback mountains, the city hosts a 10-day Pride Festival and the Gay Rodeo in June. Travellers who come for the Gay Rodeo often stay in town for the Stampede, he says.
But Polyak says it's not a good idea at the Stampede Grounds to hold hands or smooch your same-sex partner.
"Calgary is still very much a conservative city. We cannot forget that." |
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