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Given that the most popular destinations cannot be known with any certainty, the following destinations are those that are frequently referred to as being ‘popular’. It is not an exhaustive list of destinations, nor is it necessarily representative of destinations that are the most popular. The purpose is to describe the destinations and indicate some of the key issues relating to their supposed popularity.

Amsterdam

With a population of about 800,000, it is the largest city in The Netherlands. It is a port city but has become a particularly popular tourist destination. The attractions are the conventional ones of its heritage of buildings and canals, and the less conventional ones associated with a liberal attitude towards sex (and heterosexual prostitution) and drug use. It has a reputation for being a city of great cultural diversity, and considerable tolerance has been extended to alternative lifestyles. This has included homosexuality and led to its great popularity with foreign visitors who experience less freedom in their home countries. Gay and lesbian life is very open and there are numerous visible gay and lesbian venues in several distinct clusters scattered throughout the city. They include bars, restaurants, hotels, saunas and dance as well as sex clubs. Its tolerance may be no more than skin-deep, however, given the restrictive policies of government and the reluctance of the tourist board to market to gays and lesbian in recent years, along with an apparent rise in ‘gay-bashing’.

Argentina

A South American country with a population of 39 million. It is bordered by the South Atlantic and has a temperate climate. Its capital city, Buenos Aires, is alleged to have become the gay Mecca of South America, rivalling Rio as the ‘traditional’ gay destination for gays from the USA and Europe (Goni, 2004). This is, in part, attributed to its cosmopolitan feel and European lifestyle, as well as a favourable exchange rate. It is believed that some of the current tourist boom is associated with sex tourism.

Brazil

This is the largest country in South America and has a population of 186 million. Its climate is mostly tropical. Homosexuality is legal in Brazil and there are gay scenes in most cities. Despite this, homophobia is still deeply rooted and homophobic attacks common, especially in smaller towns.

Rio de Janeiro, one-time capital of Brazil, has a population of about eight million and is a popular tourist destination despite extensive poverty and shanty towns. Gay life centres on Ipanema and Copacabana beaches rather than on its night-life, which is allegedly better in São Paulo (Egginton, 2004). The tourist highlight of the year is Rio’s Carnival, held annually over 4 days in February. Gays have played an important part in the Carnival since the 1930s.

Cairns (Australia)

A tourist town of 120,000 inhabitants on the coast of North Queensland in Australia. It has a tropical climate and is the third most popular tourist destination in the country after Sydney and Brisbane, with over one million visitors annually. Its beaches are a significant attraction, along with the Great Barrier Reef and the inland tropical rainforests.

It is also the second most popular gay and lesbian destination in Australia. The Queensland state government and tourist board actively promote to the gay and lesbian market. It is particularly popular pre- and post-Mardi Gras in Sydney. There are several gay and lesbian resorts and hotels around Cairns: Turtle Cove Resort, with a private gay beach is widely advertised to the gay market. The Liberty resort was reported to be remarketing itself (in 2004) to straight tourists because it had failed to fill a third of its rooms since opening in 2002 (Fickling, 2004).

Cape Town (South Africa)

This is the legislative centre of the Republic of South Africa; it is a coastal city of three million inhabitants of whom 32% are ‘Black African’ and 48% are ‘Coloured’. It lies at the southern tip of Africa and is bordered by the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and has a temperate climate. The Republic of South Africa has experienced majority rule since 1994, when government by the white minority population ended. The principle of non-discrimination enshrined in the 1996 constitution includes that on grounds of sexual orientation.

Since majority rule, Cape Town has become a popular destination for gay tourists from Europe and the USA; it is ‘the new Sydney’ (Mellor, 2002a). Tourism is based on city-break holidays, shopping, beaches, the surrounding winelands and scenery. It now has a well-established gay scene of bars, clubs, saunas and hotels and guesthouses, as well as regular, high-profile gay and lesbian events such as Mother City Queer Project and Cape Town Pride.

The Caribbean

Countries in the Caribbean Sea do not have a particularly good reputation with regard to gay-friendliness. Jamaica, the ‘cultural heart’ of the Caribbean, has a population of three million and a tropical climate and is possibly the most homophobic of the islands (Gregory, 2004). Homosexuality is illegal and verbal abuse, violence and even murder of gays is common. Homosexuality was decriminalized in Cuba in 1979 but it is still illegal if ‘publicly manifested’, with a penalty of up to one year in prison (Gregory, 2004). The gay scene takes place in private clubs.

St Kitts was singled out, however, in one UK gay paper as offering a ‘warm welcome’ despite not having a thriving gay scene (Miles, 2003). Similarly, Puerto Rico was promoted as ‘one of the only destinations in the Caribbean truly considered as gay-friendly’ (Czyzselska, 2003, p. 20). This tropical island has a population of about four million and despite being self-governing remains a ‘commonwealth associated with the US’ following a period of US ownership. It has the most developed gay and lesbian infrastructure within the Caribbean of bars and clubs, gay-popular beaches and hotels. Most gay life for tourists is centred on the capital city of San Juan, which is a cruise port and also a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Costa Rica

Central American country bordered by the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, located between Nicaragua to the north and Panama to the south. It has a tropical and subtropical climate; inland topography is rugged mountains, including over 100 volcanic cones, of which several are major volcanoes. It has a population of four million of whom three-quarters are Roman Catholic. The country is politically stable, has a reputation for tolerance and has laws against sexual-orientation discrimination. Its tourism is based on beach holidays, but also increasingly on ecotourism and adventure tourism associated with its mountains, rain forests, rivers and ‘extraordinary panoply of wildlife, flora and fauna’ (Copestake, undated). The (inland) capital of San Jose has a significant gay scene and there are gay beaches on the Pacific coast in particular.

Fire Island (USA)

A 32-mile-long island on the southern edge of Long Island, about 45 miles east of New York City. Its unspoilt beaches are protected by the National Park Service. There are two centres of gay and lesbian life on the island, Cherry Grove and Pines. The Grove developed as a gay resort in the 1920s and 1930s, catering for an ‘artistic’ set of visitors from New York, and by the 1960s it was ‘a kind of informally organized gay theme park’ (Newton, 1993, p. 110). The Pines resort was developed in the early 1950s and became established as a place for ‘the party crowd’, who were considered to be less of a community than in the Grove. Pines is for ‘snootygayboys- with-good-bodies’ (Theobald, 2002) and for the ‘modern and muscly’ (Miles, 2000) and has, over the years, earned a reputation for beach parties, drugs and wild sex. Conversely, the Grove has become associated more with ‘less trendy’ gays and with lesbians. Both the Grove and Pines are popular for day visits and hotel accommodation is limited. The Grove is characterized by small, owner-occupied cottages but at Pines, in particular, there are many large, multiple-share houses which are let on a weekly, monthly or seasonal basis.

Fort Lauderdale (Florida, USA)

A town of 1.8 million on the Atlantic coast of Southern Florida, it long had a reputation as a place for student ‘Spring Break’ which, in turn, was associated with rowdy behaviour. It has turned itself around, however, during the 1980s and 1990s into a beach destination for families, international travellers and, noticeably, gay and lesbian visitors. It has an extensive gay scene, including a gay beach and numerous gay-owned and gay-friendly hotels, bars and clubs. It is also close to Orlando, Miami and the Keys. It ‘now bears more resemblance to Monte Carlo or St Tropez’ and its appeal seems to be for those who have ‘little in common with the pill-popping, disco-crazed queens’ (Roach, http://www.gaytimestravel. co.uk). The Greater Fort Lauderdale VCB has deliberately targeted the gay and lesbian market and claims that they ‘have been nationally recognized as one of the pioneers in the gay–lesbian marketing effort’ (Michael Kenney of Greater Fort Lauderdale VCB, quoted in Van Drake, 2003).

Gran Canaria (Canary Islands)

Gran Canaria is one of the seven Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, located off the north-western coast of Africa; they are part of Spain. Other islands in the group include Tenerife and Lanzarote. Their location means they have a year-round semi-tropical climate and the larger islands are major tourist destinations. Gran Canaria is a year-round destination with a local population of about 800,000. It is the single most popular destination sold by UK gay and lesbian tour operators.

The attractions of the island are many, including its scenery, watersports and adventure tourism, but the attractions for most gay and lesbian tourists are the sandy beaches and dunes of Maspalomas (with gay sections) and the gay nightlife of Playa del Ingles which, together, comprise the biggest gay resort town in Europe (Walker, 2000). The Yumbo Centre in Playa del Ingles is a shopping mall by day, which also houses about 60 gay bars and discos which, when they open at night, transform the Centre. The Centre offers clear attractions for any gays or lesbians who experience no or a limited gay scene at home, though it ‘must be one of the most God-despairing, architecturally arrested holes on the planet’ (Davis, 2004, p. 139). Playa del Ingles is also a popular tourist destination for non-gays and there is no evident conflict with the gay and lesbian visitors; there is little reported homophobia or violence.

Ibiza (Mediterranean Sea)

Ibiza is one of the Spanish Balearic Islands (which include Mallorca) in the western Mediterranean Sea. The islands are major tourist destinations. Ibiza became a major centre of tourism during the 1950s and 1960s, when it attracted an alternative culture that included hippies, artists and gays. Since that time it has become a popular destination for families but retains its appeal to others, including younger singles attracted by the club nightlife. It has had a considerable reputation as the clubbers’ capital, a centre for dance music lovers. Although there a number of significant resort towns on the island (the biggest being San Antonio) which cater particularly for straights, the most popular with gays are Ibiza Town and the surrounding towns such as Figueretas – which is the main area for gay hotels. Most of the gay nightlife takes place in or around Ibiza Town.

Key West (Florida, USA)

Key West is a two-by-four-mile island located at the tip of the Florida Keys, a chain of small coral islands, largely consisting of nature reserves or parks. The islands are linked to one another and the mainland by a causeway, and Key West is a 3-hour drive from Miami. Notable past literary Key West residents include Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote. As it declined as a seaport town in the 1970s, Key West was transformed and regenerated as a holiday destination by and for gays and lesbians. Victorian houses were restored and refurbished as upmarket guesthouses and restaurants; most gay accommodation is in this historic district, close to restaurants and gay bars. There are a number of well-established, men-only resorts, many of which are clothing-optional and cruisy. It has, for some time, been a predominantly gay and lesbian holiday town but, more recently, it has catered for a wider range of visitors.

Lesvos (Mediterranean Sea)

Lesvos is a Greek island in the Aegean Sea (eastern part of the Mediterranean), close to the Turkish coastline. The island has an appeal for families seeking more than just a beach and bar, as its attractions include historical sites, museums, Roman ruins, hot springs, walking and bird-watching (Macleod, 2003). Skala Eressos is a small village on the western coast which, as the alleged birthplace and home of Sappho, has a particular significance for lesbians. Women-only guesthouses and hotels are common, the beach has a women-only nude sunbathing area and many bars restaurants, bookstores and gift shops are run by lesbians. This popularity has created some tension with local residents at times, especially as other tourist markets have been targeted. It has become increasingly popular with families and with heterosexual honeymooning couples.

Manchester (UK)

This is an old industrial city in the north-west of England, whose initial prosperity as a manufacturing and commercial centre for cotton has declined. Like many other such cities, it has endeavoured to re-invent itself, at least in part, as a tourist destination and as a vibrant, cultural centre of consumption. The city has a population of about half a million but is the centre of a conurbation of 2.5 million people. It lacks specific individual tourist icons but has based its tourist appeal on a number of features targeted at specific markets, as well as a more general targeting based on the combination of those features.

The targeting of the gay and lesbian market has focused on the existing gay space of the ‘Gay Village’, located in the city-centre. This is a gay space of bars and clubs, saunas, bookshop and restaurants, which has a concentration and coherence not apparent in any other UK city. This gay space is an open, tolerant, relatively safe area where, in summer in particular, there is an appropriation of the Village streets. It featured in a national UK television series Queer as Folk in 1999. The city has a longestablished gay and lesbian festival and, in 2003, hosted the Europride festival. The gay space has not featured in the marketing in isolation, but along with the usual attractions of a large urban area – theatres, shopping, eating out and sport, as well as easy access to rural parts of England and Wales.

Mexico

Mexico is a country of 106 million people that borders the USA – the states of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas in particular. Discrimination is forbidden by the Mexican constitution. There is a lively gay scene in many cities and towns, though homosexuality is not universally tolerated in the more rural areas. Mexico City contains one of the largest gay populations in the world, but its gay scene is limited. Acapulco (on the Pacific coast) had a famous international gay scene with openly gay spaces before they appeared in Mexico City (Sanchez-Crispin and Lopez- Lopez, 1997).

Puerto Vallarta, on the Pacific coast, dubbed the ‘San Francisco of Mexico’, has developed as Mexico’s premier gay resort (Tatchell, 2002). It has a modern marina and is also a cruise ship port. It is a town (of over 300,000 inhabitants) which is a popular holiday destination for Mexican families and, also – mainly US and Canadian – gay men. It has a gay scene of hotels and resorts as well as bars, clubs and a gay beach on the main shore. Cancún, on the Caribbean coast, is a purpose-built holiday town on an island connected to the mainland by two bridges. It is an Americanized beach destination with upscale resorts and hotels, clubs and malls. There is no gay resort or hotel accommodation as such, but it is a gay-friendly destination with gay bars and clubs and a gay strip on the beach (Ferber, 2001).

Miami Beach (Florida, USA)

This is the beach holiday part of Miami connected to downtown by a number of causeways. The part that has been most popular with gays and lesbians is South Beach, an area characterized by 1920s and 1930s Art Deco buildings, including hotels and guesthouses that were renovated in the 1980s. Prior to this it had become a particularly run-down part of Miami. Gays and lesbians were instrumental in some of the regeneration and the area acquired its own large resident gay community. There are number of gay bars and clubs, though the scene is not as large or as hectic as in Fort Lauderdale. It is renowned also for circuit parties such as the White Party (November), when gay life typically dominates South Beach.

Mykonos (Mediterranean Sea)

Mykonos is a Greek island in the Aegean Sea (eastern part of the Mediterranean) with a population of about 6000. It is one of the most cosmopolitan of the Greek islands and has long attracted intellectuals and artists (Miles, 2000). It is not a particularly scenic island, but its attraction lies in its beaches and nightlife. It is popular with an upscale Greek market, but also has become particularly popular with international gay tourists so that it has probably the gayest scene of Greece. Gay nightlife is concentrated in Mykonos town but beaches are out of town and are reached by bus or boat. The island of Delos, a short boat journey away, includes the sanctuary of Dionysus with its two pillars supporting large, stone phalluses

Palm Springs (California, USA)

This small town is about 100 miles east of Los Angeles on the edge of the Californian deserts. As such, it has a warm and clear year-round climate and has grown into an exclusive retreat and retirement centre. There are a large number of second homes in Palm Springs, the permanent population of which is 44,000, with another 27,000–30,000 people living there in the winter. Despite the proximity to the deserts it is a particularly lush green oasis in which there are over 100 golf courses and 600 tennis courts. Temperatures can reach into the upper 30s Celsius, though the surrounding mountain ranges (up to 11,000 feet) with a cooler environment are accessible by way of an Aerial Tramway. The town is characterized by mid-20th century modernist architecture, which itself is part of its tourist resource.

It is a major draw in California, after San Francisco and Los Angeles, for gay and lesbian visitors and, although it has little by way of nightlife or gay hotels, it has numerous gay resorts, many of which are clothingoptional and some themed (leather or S&M). It is also home to renowned circuit parties for men (White Party at Easter) and for women (Dinah Shore). It has been described as ‘Gran Canaria without the vulgarity . . . Mykonos minus the pretty whitewashed houses’ (Copestake, undated). It is also particularly popular as a weekend destination for gay and lesbian Californians.

Provincetown (Massachusetts, USA)

This small town with a population of about 4000 lies at the tip of the Cape Cod peninsula in Massachusetts; the nearest large city is Boston, which is a 90-minute ferry boat trip away. Its historical claim to fame is as the first landing of the Pilgrim fathers on American soil, from the Mayflower, in 1620. Its growth was associated with whaling but subsequently it became an ‘artists’ colony’ in the late 19th century. By the 1960s it had become a tourist town renowned for a particularly liberal attitude to alternative lifestyles – including hippies in the 1970s. It has been portrayed as an idyllic coastal vacation destination ‘where those who live unconventionally seem to outnumber those who live within the prescribed boundaries of home and licensed marriage’ (Cunningham, 2004, p. 64). Now, a large proportion of the permanent and visitor population is lesbian or gay, and gays and lesbians own most of the businesses and real estate. It is a very popular summer destination for gay and lesbian tourists, many of whom are day trippers. There has been little anti-gay sentiment, probably because of its initial small local population, relative geographical isolation and its attractiveness for ‘refugees, rebels and visionaries for almost 400 years’

Russian River (California, USA)

Russian River is a rural area in Sonoma County, California, about a 90-minute drive north of San Francisco. Its importance lay initially in forestry, and its redwood forests attracted visitors in the 19th century. Its economy is now very much dependent on tourism and day trippers, who come to experience the forests, vineyards, farms, orchards and wineries and engage in activities such as riding, hiking, camping, fishing, biking and canoeing.

Guerneville is one of the largest of the Russian River villages (though only 3000 population) and has become the centre for gay and lesbian visitors to the region. It has gay bars and gay resorts and is ‘a rustic paradise of hiking, hot tubs, cute cabins and laid-back, clothing-optional sunbathing areas’ (Mellor, 2002a, p. 14). Its ‘notorious’ 3-day alfresco Sundance Party in mid-August attracts about 4000 gays, mainly from San Francisco and the Bay area. The Women’s Weekend held in May has been a tradition for over 20 years; another is held in September.

San Francisco (California, USA)

One of the USA’s most compact cities with a population of about threequarters of a million, located on the Pacific coast. Its growth owes much to the discovery of gold in California in the late 1840s and to its development as a west coast port. It has had a reputation as a ‘frontier town’ and as a place of non-conformity, with permanent and transient populations of prospectors, sailors and immigrants from Asia in particular and military personnel. Its reputation in the 1950s and 1960s as the home of the ‘beats’, of hippies and the ‘love generation’ has been an important factor in its image as a particularly liberal, tolerant city. This and its iconic Golden Gate Bridge, the prison of Alcatraz and its cable-cars have contributed to making it one of the most popular tourist destinations in the USA, attracting about 17 million visitors a year.

The city has had a particular resonance for gays and lesbians, especially in view of the existence of the predominantly gay neighbourhood of the Castro. This central part of San Francisco had been in decline but, through a process of regeneration and gentrification in the 1970s by gays and lesbians, became a part of the city where homosexual residents have come to outnumber non-gays. San Francisco has had a noticeably high-profile and politically powerful gay and lesbian community and it had been dubbed the ‘gay capital of the USA’ by Life magazine as early as 1964. There is also an extensive gay scene in the city which is not confined to the Castro.

Sitges (Spain)

This small town is on the northern Mediterranean coast of Spain just south of Barcelona (population of over three million), which is a 25-minute train ride away. Sitges has been an artistic and ‘bohemian’ resort since the 19th century and has been a planned tourist town since the early 20th century. It has avoided the worst excesses of much of the tourism development on the Spanish Mediterranean coast, so that high-rise and high-density apartment and hotel building and cheap mass tourism do not characterize Sitges. It is largely unspoilt and upmarket and attracts Spanish families, especially at weekends, from Barcelona.

It is a very popular destination for many European gays and lesbians. There are more gay bars than in Barcelona itself, numerous gay clubs, gay fashion shops and gay beaches, one of which is centrally located. An ‘unbelievably open and matter-of-fact way gayness meshes with the very traditional family-oriented culture of this town’ (Van Gelder and Brandt, 1991, p. 254).

Sydney (Australia)

This city (population of nearly four million) is in the state of New South Wales in the south-east of Australia. It is the oldest and largest city in the country and over half of all international visitors to Australia come to the city. It has a number of iconic landmarks, including the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. Its beaches, especially Bondi, are particularly well known.

Despite its distance from the USA and Europe, it is becoming a popular destination for gays and lesbians. There is an extensive and open gay scene of bars, clubs, hotels, sex clubs and saunas, as well as the renowned Mardi Gras festival held annually in February.

Thailand (South-east Asia)

A country of 65 million people, with a tropical climate and a coastline on both the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. It has had a reputation for sex tourism, mainly heterosexual men seeking sex with Thai women, though also with a homosexual angle. The country has been anxious to shed this image and move the emphasis to holidays focused on its heritage, scenery and wildlife – as well as family-oriented holidays based on the numerous tropical beaches.

It remains an attractive destination for gay men in particular. Homosexual behaviour between consenting adults is not a criminal offence and Thailand has one of the world’s more liberal sexual cultures in terms of tolerance of homosexuals, though public displays of affection are not advisable. There are large gay scenes in Bangkok, Phuket, Pattaya and Chiang Mai. Bangkok, the country’s capital city, has an extensive gay scene; many venues are cruisy but highly commercial, and frequented by Thai men and boys willing to engage in relationships with tourists for money. Pattaya (on the south-eastern coast) is a well-developed and flamboyant destination which has been popular with gay visitors for many years. Phuket (an island off the western coast) has a number of beaches including Patong Beach, which is particularly popular with gays. Chiang Mai, an ancient inland walled city and university town of about half a million inhabitants, has a more relaxed though still commercial gay scene.

Vancouver (British Columbia, Canada)

Toronto and Montreal in eastern Canada may have a particular popularity with gay and lesbian travellers, but Vancouver on the Pacific coast has emerged as a significant destination. It is the third largest city in Canada, with half amillion inhabitants, and is Canada’s largest port. It is also a major tourist destination partly due to its population links with the UK, but also because of its location between mountains and sea, its proximity to the Rockies and because it has one of the mildest climates in Canada.

British Columbia was one of the first Canadian provinces, along with Ontario and Quebec, to legalize same-sex marriage in 2003 before the national legalization in 2005. The city, a ‘laid-back, open city’ (Townsend, 2004), has the largest gay and lesbian population in western Canada and has two well-established gay and lesbian residential areas. There is an extensive gay scene of bars, shops, restaurants and clubs. It hosted the third Gay Games in 1990. The annual gay and lesbian ski week, Altitude, is held in Whistler (Rockies) and starts with the ‘Avalanche’ party, in Vancouver. Salt Spring Island, off the east coast of Vancouver, has a community of about 10,000 people, many of whom are artists, sculptors and musicians and is a popular destination for lesbians (Mellor, 2002a).