The scope for exploiting the tourism potential of cities is, in marketing terms,
limited to promotion, image-generation and product-positioning. Marketers
identify the strengths of the city and target particular market segments. In
this paper, the case of Manchester (UK) and its marketing campaign targeted at
the gay men’s market are examined. The factors influencing gay
men’s holiday choices are discussed prior to a description of the
marketing campaign. The paper explores the likely impact of this campaign upon
the significance of the ‘gay space’ of Manchester. It
concludes that whilst the gay tourism market is a particularly apt one for
Manchester to target there are implications for the life of gay residents which
are undesirable.
Ryan, C.
and
Hall, M.
(2001) ‘Sex Tourism: Marginal People and
Liminalities’,
Routledge, London
.
2.
Tyler, D.
,
Guerrier, Y.
and
Robertson, M.
(eds) (1998) ‘Managing Tourism in Cities: Policy,
Process and Practice’,
John Wiley, Chichester
.
3.
Ashworth, G.
and
Voogd, H.
(1994) ‘Marketing and place
promotion’, in
Gold, J.
and
Ward, S.
(eds) ‘Place Promotion: The Use of Publicity and Marketing to
Sell Towns and Regions’,
John Wiley, Chichester
, pp. 39-52.
4.
Morgan, N.
and
Pritchard, A.
(1998) ‘Tourism Promotion and Power: Creating
Images, Creating Identities’,
John Wiley, Chichester
.
5.
Bramwell, B.
and
Rawding, L.
(1996)
‘Tourism marketing images of industrial cities’
, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 23, No.
1, pp.
201-221
.
6.
Morgan and Pritchard, ref. 4 above, p. 15.
7.
Um, S.
and
Crompton, J.
(1992)
‘The role of perceived inhibitors and facilitators in pleasure
travel destination decisions’
, Journal of Travel Research, Vol. 30, No.
3, pp.
18-25 at p. 24
.
8.
Mintel
(2000) ‘The Gay Holiday Market’,
Mintel International Group, London
.
9.
Russell, P.
(2001)
‘The world gay travel market’
, Travel and Tourism Analyst, No 2, pp.
37-58
.
10.
Hughes, H.
(2002) ‘Gay men’s holidays: Identity
and inhibitors’, in
Clift, S.
,
Luongo, M.
and
Callister, C.
(eds) ‘Gay Tourism: Culture, Identity and
Risk’,
Continuum, London
.
11.
Mintel, ref. 8 above, p. 3.
12.
Clift, S.
and
Forrest, S.
(1999)
‘Gay men and tourism: Destinations and holiday motivations’
, Tourism Management, Vol. 20, No. 5, pp.
615-625
.
13.
Ryan and Hall, ref. 1 above. p. 103.
14.
Amnesty International UK
(1997) ‘Breaking the Silence: Human Rights
Violations Based on Sexual Orientation’,
Amnesty International UK, London
.
15.
Hindle, P.
(1994) ‘Gay communities and gay space in the
city’, in
Whittle, S.
(ed.) ‘The Margins of the City: Gay Men’s Urban
Lives’,
Arena, Aldershot
, pp. 7-25.
16.
Hughes, H.
(1997)
‘Holidays and homosexual identity’
, Tourism Management, Vol. 18, No. 4, pp.
3-7atp.5
.
17.
Whittle, S.
(1994) ‘Consuming differences: The collaboration
of the gay body with the cultural state’, in
Whittle, S.
(ed.) ‘The Margins of the City: Gay Men’s Urban
Lives’,
Arena, Aldershot
, pp. 27-41.
18.
Field, ibid., p. 51.
19.
Valentine, G.
(1996) ‘(Re)-negotiating the heterosexual
street: Lesbian production of space’, in
Duncan, N.
(ed.) ‘Body Space: Destabilising Geographies of Gender and
Sexuality’,
Routledge, London
, pp. 146-155.
20.
Marketing Manchester
(2000) ‘Manchester Travel Planner’,
Marketing Manchester, Manchester
.
21.
Ward, K.
(2000)
‘From rentiers to rantiers: Active entrepreneurs. structural
speculators and the politics of marketing the city’
, Urban Studies, Vol. 37, No. 7, pp.
1093-1107 at p. 1099
.
22.
Marketing Manchester
(2001) ‘Manchester Travel Guide’,
Marketing Manchester, Manchester
.
23.
See, for instance,
Manchester 2002
(1999) ‘Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games
Corporate Plan’,
Manchester 2002 Ltd, Manchester
.
24.
Law, C.
(1993)
‘Tourism in Greater Manchester’
, Manchester Geographer, No. 14, pp.
38-53 at p. 38
.
25.
Berkmoes, R.
,
Bedford, N.
,
Callan, L.
,
Davenport, F.
and
Ray, N.
(2001) ‘The Lonely Planet Guide to
England’,
Lonely Planet Publications, London
, p. 568.
26.
www.gaybritain.org (British Tourist Authority).
27.
Russell, ref. 9 above; Mintel, ref. 8 above.
28.
Manchester City Council
(2001) ‘Manchester City Guide’,
Manchester City Council, Manchester
.
29.
Foti, J.
(2000)
‘Manchester, England: Gritty, witty and surprisingly gay’
, Star Tribune, 27th August, pp.
G1-G3 at G1
.
30.
Mellor, R.
(2002)
‘Red hot and pink’
, The Observer, 24th February, Escape section, p.
13
.
31.
Taylor, M.
(2001)
‘Manchester really is Queer as Folk’
, Our World, April, pp.
22-27 at p. 24
.
32.
Cowell, A.
(2001)
‘Manchester rising’
, New York Times, 24th June, pp.
TR 8-9atp.9
.
33.
Jenkins, R.
(1999)
‘Nowt so queer as folk up north’
, The Times, 24th July, p.
8
.
34.
Meakin, R.
(1999)
‘Gay tourism: Manchester makes bid for homosexual and lesbian visitors’
, Manchester Evening News, 23rd July, p.
1
.
35.
Wilson, A. (2001) personal communication, May.
36.
Karney, P.
(1999) quoted the Daily Telegraph, 24th July.
37.
Pritchard, A.
,
Morgan, N.
,
Sedgley, D.
and
Jenkins, A.
(1998)
‘Reaching out to the gay market: Opportunities and threats in an
emerging market segment’
, Tourism Management, Vol. 19, No. 3, pp.
273-282
.
38.
www.lonelyplanet.com.
39.
Quilley, S.
(1997) ‘Constructing Manchester’s new
urban village: Gay space in the entrepreneurial city’, in
Ingram, B.Bouthillette, A.
and
Retter, Y.
(eds) ‘Queers in Space: Communities, Public Places, Sites of
Resistance’,
Bay Press, Seattle
, pp. 275-292 at p. 275.
40.
Hindle, P.
(2000)
‘The influence of the Gay Village on migration to central Manchester’
, North West Geographer, No. 3, pp.
21-28
.
41.
Hillmore, P.
(1999)
‘Madness of the gay ghetto where being normal is a crime’
, Mail on Sunday, 29th August, p.
38
.
42.
Whittle, ref. 17 above, p. 38.
43.
Hindle, ref. 40 above, p. 26.
44.
Pritchard, A.
,
Morgan, N.
and
Sedgley, D.
(2000) ‘Exploring sexuality and space in
Manchester’s Gay Village’, in
Robinson, M.
,
Sharpley, R.
,
Evans, N.
,
Long, P.
and
Swarbrooke, J.
(eds) ‘Developments in Urban and Rural
Tourism’,
Business Education Publishers, Sunderland
, pp. 225-237.
45.
See preliminary reports on the University of Manchester’s
‘Violence, sexuality and space’ research project which focuses
on Manchester’s Gay Village: www.man.ac.uk/sociology/vssrp.
46.
Wilson, N.
(2001)
in Noone, J. ‘Bad attitude’
, MAN, No. 5, May/June, p.
20
.
47.
Pritchard et al., ref. 44 above.
48.
‘Milking the pink pound’
, City Life, No. 311, pp.
14-15
.
49.
Out and About
(2001)
‘Manchester, England: Queer as Folk indeed’
, Out and About, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp.
20-23 at p. 20
.
50.
Wilson, ref. 46 above.
51.
Quilley, ref. 39 above, pp. 287-288.
52.
Pritchard et al., ref. 37 above, p. 280.
53.
Holcomb, B.
(1999) ‘Marketing cities for
tourism’, in
Judd, D.
and
Fainstein, S.
(eds) ‘The Tourist City’,
Yale University Press, New Haven
, pp. 54-70 at p. 69.
