Whether it is true or not, but the largely believed turning of the White Beach in Puerto Galera into a gay Mecca during the Holy Week has its merits – “I’ve been going there (with from five to 12 friends) every year for four to five days for the past eight years,” says PéPé Castro.  And “without miss, especially during Holy Week, the place, indeed, turns into a gay paradise – everyone gay in Metro Manila is there, getting the, arguably, only long break they can have from school and from work for the whole year.  It isn’t called gay Mecca for nothing, you know.”

And even if still largely undocumented, the GLBTQI contribution to Puerto Galera in particular cannot be denied – locals would be the first to admit that sans the GLBTQI “assault” during the Holy Week, at least, their loss will undeniably be big.  Placed in the context that GLBTQIs serve as Puerto Galera’s press relations officer, too, then that loss is doubled if GLBTQIs boycotted Puerto Galera.

Not that this is anything new.

Wikipedia.org states that “major companies in the travel industry have become aware of the substantial money (also known as the ‘pink currency’) generated by this marketing niche, and have made it a point to align themselves with the gay community and gay tourism campaigns.” 

Understandably, studies after studies cite why this is so, e.g. Tourism Intelligence International 2000 noted that “some 10% of international tourists are gay or lesbians, amounting to more than 70 million arrivals worldwide”; Community Marketing Inc. notes that gay tourists on their own spend an estimated $64 billion annually; and with the GLBTQI community as a whole spending as much as $600 billion annually (all expenses, aside from travel and tourism), according to Wietck Combs.

“The growing desire to reach the gay market has helped spur a tourism industry geared specifically to gay travel,” says Chris Wilson, president and COO of Simmons Market Research, in a statement (marketresearchworld.net) released with the release of the Gay and Lesbian Consumer Study (GLSC).  “This has created an opportunity for travel companies to develop travel offerings and destinations that deliver on a gay-positive experience.”

GLSC revealed that GLBTQIs, “compared to the total adult population, are more likely to love the idea of traveling abroad, more likely to only want to relax when on vacation, more likely to go somewhere different for vacation every time, more likely to spend $1,000 or more on the average trip, and more likely to have participated in the following activities in the last 12 months: dined out at restaurant (not fast food), cooked for fun, attended a live concert, attended a live theater show, and gone to a nightclub, bar or dancing.”

“It is easy to see why the GLBTQI population is drawing increased attention from advertisers and marketers,” Wilson adds.