Time For An Update??

After an absence of some years it must be time for an update!!!

Our apologies for not keeping things up to date, but we have been travelling ourselves a good deal over the last few years, and doing a bit of blogging on other subjects at the same time!

We are pleased to say that Crete, Greece, has been getting its fair share of gay tourism over the last few years, indeed perhaps more than our fair share!

So first let's start with the gay bar side of things..... Roze Maandag in Port Hersonissos has changed ownership and its name and is still a popular place for visitors and residents alike. The new name is Y.O.L.O (as in You Only Live Once), and they have a little web site here.... https://yolo-bar.business.site/ 

In Heraklion La Brasserie still caters for the LGBT population for those staying in the city, unless you really want to do some driving late at night, or take a taxi back in the early hours. Saturday is ''Rainbow Party Night'' starting at 10pm, with a variety of entertainments as published on their Facebook Page here https://www.facebook.com/labrasserie/, or you can visit their web site here https://labrasserie.gr/

If you are at the western end of Crete, then check out Ababa Bar in Xania, they have a Facebook Page here https://www.facebook.com/ababa.bar/.

The beaches noted in an earlier blog still remain as popular as ever....

And finally hotels.... There is no dedicated LGBT accommodation on the island but many places are gay friendly.... To be honest nobody is really interested in what you do in the bedroom and many LGBTQ visitors stay in the smaller family run apartment blocks which abound on the island, and these are still some of the best places to stay. Of course you can stay in the huge ''5 *'' all inclusive resort and spa hotels with six pools, 3 saunas, 8 restaurants, (probably only one of which serves Greek food), and has hundreds of other guests, but they do tend to be a bit impersonal, so you will be more anonymous than anything else. But after travelling around in the last few years we still prefer the smaller places to stay, but then we do nearly all of our travelling as independent travelers!

But we can make a couple of recommendations...... Near Hersonissos, at Anisarras, there is Home Hotel owned and run by two British gay guys where you are sure to be welcome, you can find the web site at http://www.home-hotel.gr/, and if you are heading to the western end of Crete, Greece there is the Mythologia Hotel at Georgioupoulis, they have a Faceboook Page at https://www.facebook.com/mythologia.hotell

This post will probably have another update within the next few weeks as the hotels start to re-open for the summer season!

The Gay Crete Blog Takes A Look At......2013 A Retrospective Look At LGBT Tourism on Crete, Greece

It is not unusual around this time of year for people do to a retrospect on the past year, and so we have decided to take a look back at the 2013 gay and lesbian tourist scene on Crete.

It seems throughout the world that economic uncertainty has to some extent affected tourism, and indeed in Greece, which is a favourite tourist destination, reporting, and mis-reporting, of the 'economic crisis' has perhaps given prospective visitors the wrong impression to such an extent that many believe that Greece is 'shut'!

Here we take at look at what has been an excellent year for gay travellers to Crete with many more LGBT visitors discovering that Crete has much to offer.
Crete has long been a destination for LGBT travellers even though it often overshadowed by the (nearly) neighbouring island of Mykonos. Independent and package tour gay travellers visit Crete for the opportunities it offers not just for some excellent beaches, but sightseeing, archaeology, and other activities not available on a small island like Mykonos. 

It is always difficult to quantify LGBT tourism because as we all know we don't walk around with labels on our foreheads, and at the Gay Crete Blog we have always assumed the normal 6% (or 10% if you prefer) of the LGBT population visit Crete. This of course, gives easily twice the amount of LGBT tourists as the 'gay' island of Mykonos.

Naturally with an island the size of Crete (about the same size as the state of Delaware), our gay and lesbian travelers are very spread out. This year however, we have been out and about visiting beaches and various other attractions and are pleased to say that we have met even more LGBT visitors than we expected.

The north coast of Crete is one of the busiest and most cosmopolitan areas of Crete, which doesn't suit those in search of a quiet holiday, but has given us a good guide to the number of LGBT visitors this year, and also this area has the greatest number of facilities for gay tourism which probably explains the attraction for them.

Roze Maandag Hersonissos

For nightlife, Roze Maandag, the gay bar which opened very late in the season in 2011, and moved to new premises for 2013, has proved very popular. A small bar with a dancing area it is cozy, almost twee, and this year has been busier than ever. We have heard a couple of visitors have complained about cigarette smoke (smoking is actually banned in Greece inside bars but it still goes on), and at times the selection of music has been described as an 'iTunes Back Catalog', nonetheless the bar has been very popular with both gay and lesbian tourists. Nearly everyone that is visiting seems to be going here for at least a couple of nights during their stay. Couples wanting a slightly quieter evening out are still heading up the hill to the village of Koutouloufari to the famous Vinnie's Garden and Dionysos which historically have been very gay friendly.

Sadly Eros Bar in Malia was not open this year as they had problems with the building. One might be forgiven for thinking this is why Roze Maandag has been so busy but as not all visitors were prepared to make the quite short journey to Malia for a night out it probably has nothing to do with Roze Maandag being busier, more to do with the higher numbers of gay visitors to Crete!

In addition, there have been several independent LGBT travelers staying in the capital of the island, Heraklion, and here too is a new development as La Brasserie has finally come out as a gay bar!

This year has been a good year for visitors from Australia and New Zealand, and on more than one occasion Villa Ralfa, the gay b and b near Anisarras, has been full of visitors from Down Under. 

As an indication of how popular Crete actually is, a gay couple from New Zealand who came to Crete to visit the War Cemetery at Souda, and then travel northwards through the Aegean, visiting Mykonos on the way, cancelled the rest of their island hopping and spent their entire 25 day holiday on Crete.

We also had more LGBT visitors from the UK (one of our traditional markets), than previous years especially during early and late season, some of these booked 'packages' and were staying in AI hotels in Port Hersonisso, which shows a slight lack of imagination as guests in these are hotels are rather tied as to their movements and get to see less of the island than independent travelers. 

Italians were also back in force this year after a dip in their numbers last year, 2012, and conspicuous by their absence were visitors from the US. The number of gay visitors from France also seemed to be fewer than previous years. Germany and Holland gave a good showing though, particularly in the 'independent traveller' group.

Home Hotel, which last year was based in Port Hersonissos, but this year moved to Anisarras,  also proved popular with many visitors, and although it is mixed clientele did have a strong gay following and held a couple of party nights including a karaoke night where the DJ managed to get a completely wrong version of 'Spanish Eyes'! Either way Home Hotel is popular with the local gay community.

Onr of the double rooms at Home Hotel

Of course Home Hotel also has a pool bar, there just isn't space! But Villa Ralfa does have 'clothing optional' areas which the owner will let you use if you want to get a bit of 'all over' colour before you hit the nudist beach at Sarandari near Port Hersonissos.

Talking about beaches, both Kommos on the south of the island, and Sarandari were both very busy. Sarandari is only a small beach and got quite crowded at times but it is a friendly beach because of its size and is a good place to get to chat to other visitors. Kommos is larger and more spread out but even so there was quite a crowd there particularly after about 2pm.

Around Crete there is a wide choice of accommodation at varying prices and there is really no need to pay a fortune for comfortable accommodation in the smaller hotels and apartment blocks and much of it is gay friendly because they are used to people of the same sex sharing accommodation. Historically the package tour industry has to cope with groups and couples of the same sex.

One thing that many visitors comment on is how affordable Crete (and Greece) actually is. With accommodation starting from about €25 per night in smaller Greek run establishment ranging up to several hundred euros a night for a 5* resort style hotel there is something to suit most pockets.

And a good night out can be had for a lot less than many countries in northern Europe, Australasia, or the US, and let's face it we, the LGBT community, are fond of a good night out! Food is relatively cheap and of high quality mainly using fresh local produce, and prices for a beer start at around €2.50!

Looking to the future we have been told that Eros Bar in Malia will indeed be open again next year, and locally there are rumours that there will be a new bar, gay owned and run, opening early in 2014, giving the GLBT visitor even more choice.

And after all that is said, it just remains for us to wish everybody a wonderful festive season and a Happy New Year for 2014 and we look forward to seeing you on Crete next year!

The Gay Baby Boomers – Are We The Forgotten Generation?

I make no apologies for this post as it goes worldwidebut sometimes things just have to be said. I was reading through postings in a group on GTN and it got me thinking about times past...Never a good thing to do when you get older, but at the time I was having a trawl through gay web sites generally and noticed that wherever you go, most of the bars, clubs, and other venues for gay men, seem to revolve around younger people.

I should point out at this stage that I am actually a bit too young to be a ‘baby boomer’, well almost anyway.

Now this could just be me of course, but although us older lot still like to go out and have a good time, do we, when we are on holiday, want to spend our nights clubbing and our days sitting on the beach or by a pool with a hangover, getting fried to a crisp, and then repeating the whole process over again the next night?

Yes, we do like the occasional visit to a nightclub to watch the crass, callow eye candy dance the night away aided by two bottles of beer and a pocketful of illegal substances, but in spite of what they think, we are not dead from neck up, or from the waist down, (as more than one young gentleman discovered when I was visiting Peru and Chile last month).

And while they drink their two beers, us mature ones sit there and consume an entire bottle of gin with not too much tonic as we don’t have malaria as the barman seems to think.

OK, we are on holiday so we can sleep the following day but for most of us sleeping in the sun for hours on end is out of the question. We are more likely to want to spend the day submerged in a tank of moisturiser to try and reverse the ravages that time, (and too much alcohol), has wrought upon us.

And yet many gay ‘destinations’ offer little else to do.

Let’s take the Greek island of Mykonos, probably one of the most famous gay destinations in the world. And don’t get me wrong here, Mykonos is a pretty island, but it is not the almost exclusively gay Greek island that it was back in the 1970’s when I first went there. There is gay nightlife and some gay beaches, and in August it is inundated with Greeks and Italians of both sexes out for a good time. But the admirable burghers of Mykonos, and indeed the businesses themselves, more than certainly discovered that you cannot run an entire Greek island just on gay clientele.

So what do you do on an island the size of Mykonos, once you have visited the museums, a couple of churches, and been to the island of Delos?

Apart from spending evenings drinking, and days sunbathing, the answer is not a lot, and for many of us older gay men this is sometimes not quite enough. We are not so far past it that we just want to sit about and play bingo. We still want to go and see things.

New things.

Different things.

So what do we do?

We invent our own destination. A new destination more suited to our needs. And some of us have already done this in a small way. And because we are not dead from the neck up many of us know how to use the internet so we can travel independently not just follow the crowd and go where a travel agent sends us on a package tour.

The Greek island of Crete, for instance, welcomes many gay visitors each year, although we do not shout about it too much because that is the Cretan (or Greek), way. But for the older gay man, and woman, Crete offers much more than just beaches and clubs.

For a start Crete is a large island with some spectacular mountain scenery dotted with small hill villages just asking to be explored, and although I don’t suggest you take up mountain climbing, there is some great walking, (mainly downhill), that can be done such as the Samaria Gorge, the longest in Europe (yes, Crete is part of Europe), and a wealth of historical sites such as Knossos.

And if it is mythology you are after than what better than Psychro’s Cave where Zeus was born, (and no, I never met him personally, although on a bad day you can be forgiven for asking), followed by a drive around the Lassithi Plateau with chance to see the lammergeyer s that live there (and they are not so difficult to find as some people make out!), so there is something for the keen birder to look out for as well! Around the Plateau are a number of small villages and a couple of larger towns including Tzermiado, where, according to visitors from France, ‘you can get the best goat in Europe’.

Sadly most of the windmills that you see in photographs of Lassithi, are now gone, the water being pumped by electricity generated by wind turbines (!), but around the island you can see the remains of the many stone built windmills from a bygone age, along with some fine examples of Byzantine and Venetian architecture.

But after all this history and physical activity, you need to relax sometimes and Crete has a wide range of beaches including nudist beaches.

And bars.

In fact Crete has two ‘dedicated’ gay bars, Eros Bar in Malia, which has been running for some years, and the newer Roze Maandag (Pink Monday) Bar in Port Hersonissos which opened in summer 2011.

Different in style, they both play similar music but at different volumes! Eros is more of a night/dance club often frequented by Greeks and tends to start late and finish very early the following day so be prepared for a long night out. Roze Maandag bills itself as European, and has a much ‘loungier’ feel to it. You are likely to hear the same ‘gay anthems’ from the same ‘gay icons’ in both bars, but in Roze Maandag you can hear yourself think.

And for a place to stay (and here comes a bit of absolutely shameless self-promotion), there is Villa Ralfa, conveniently located just outside Port Hersonissos, and thirty minutes walk from the village of Pano Hersonissos. Villa Ralfa was Crete’s first LGBT guesthouse and gay homestay, which opened in 200,4 and since then has welcomed independent LGBT travellers from around the world. Of course you may find other hotels on Crete listed as being ‘gay friendly’ but in general these are large ‘all inclusive resorts’ which are really just ‘gay anonymous’ as you are just one or two guests in amongst several hundred. These sort of hotels are naturally the ones favoured by the so called gay travel agencies who really are not interested in true gay owned and run hotels for the simple reason that they cannot make any money by sending you to these, instead they seem to think that everyone will be happy to pay several hundred euros a night for a room without breakfast just because they have booked through a ‘gay travel agency’.

Which lead us on to a final point. The price.

Looking again at various articles it seems that some of the ageing LGBT population are having problems with ‘affordable housing’. Which seems to blow the argument that gay and lesbian people have more money, right out of the water. Sure we may own our own homes but we have been working for 35 years to pay for them. And as we grow older our incomes become fixed either because we are on a pension, or the companies we used to work for have ‘disposed’ of us, or as naturally happens our opportunities for advancement and salary rises no longer exist.

So what is the cost of a holiday on Crete?

The answer is surprisingly little.

Crete (and indeed Greece), has some of the cheapest accommodation in the world and you can get very good accommodation in a family run apartment block from as little as 20 euros per night even in high season. But bear in mind you will often have to book direct with the apartments as the travel agents will mark that up to 40 or so euros per night. Villa Ralfa charges a little more but you do get the pleasure of knowing that almost certainly your fellow guests will be LGBT, (you don’t get money back if they aren’t because they are probably friends of mine and I have them well trained), and we do look after you well, and we know our way around the gay scene, and which are the best places to go for that essential mojito before dinner.

And for food and drink, pricewise probably the best comparison that there is, is South America. A good main course and a glass of wine or bottle of beer will cost you about the same as in Lima or Cusco, or indeed in Santiago de Chile. If you want to ‘splurge’ then there are expensive places, the same as there are everywhere.

So if thinking about a Mediterranean holiday and travelling independently, and want a place to go where there are things to do then Crete, Greece is a very good option for the mature LGBT traveller.

The Gay Crete Blog Visits.....New Zealand!

The last part of this series looks at LGBT accommodations in New Zealand with my experiences during my holidays last November/December 2010, just in time for your holidays this year!!

Although I am spending most of my time staying with relatives and friends for some nights I needed to have hotels and wherever possible I headed to those listed as gay owned or run, rather than just gay friendly, now surprisingly enough New Zealand comes out tops with more gay owned accommodation than anywhere else so far, but then this is hardly surprising as tourist accommodation in NZ is characterised by small family/owner run guesthouses or as they like to call it there, homestays, very much like Crete, Greece used to be before they started building all those awful impersonal 'all inclusive' resorts.

New Zealand is a very pretty country, there are mountains, lakes, volcanos, glaciers, and beaches but few would consider it a 'gay' destination because they haven't been there! In spite of the fact that at times it seems to be a few years behind the times, New Zealand is ahead of its time as well, it was the first country to allow woman to vote for instance, and certainly in terms of LGBT accommodation it has many more than you would expect, including some gems where I was fortunate enough to be able to stay.

Unless you are staying in Auckland forget about noisy gay clubs and bars, although you will find some LGBT nightlife in other places, New Zealand is for those with a taste for good wine, good food, some stunning scenery, (and a little bit of architecture), and a lot of very good 'arty' gift shops. In fact coming to NZ is a bit like visiting Scotland..The idea is to tour around see the sights and in the evening return to your lodgings whether you are staying there for one night or several doesn't really matter as travelling distances around NZ are not too demanding and the roads are good.

So to some nitty gritty reviews.....I had originally booked with a couple of guys in Auckland for one night on my arrival, three flight time changes later and the fact that I had to be up early to catch the 'Transcenic' train from Auckland to Wellington meant that I ended up staying at Rydges, not a mistake but very well placed for some of the sights especially Sky City. It took forever to get from the airport on the transfer bus (NZ$30), because some women seemed to think it was her own personal taxi and we had a scenic tour of the Auckland suburbs so that she could be dropped outside her house, nice for here I am sure, but not for the rest of us as it took hours to get into the City itself. Rydges I will not talk about, you can read my review on TripAdvisor, suffice it to say that the bathroom taps were considerably shinier when I left than when I arrived......

Sky City is an experience but whether it is worth NZ$28 is up to you....There is an Irish pub round the corner where you will pay NZ$8 for a pleasingly large brandy and coke, the gay area is a bit of a walk from this area and I had neither the time nor inclination to visit it as I had laundry to do and had to be up early for the train.....

Please take the Transcenic from Auckland to Wellington, it will give you some idea of what delights are in store for you in the way of scenery as it rattles and sways it merry little way southwards, just hope that you don't have any Russians sleeping off too much vodka in the observation car at the back as they seem to take up a lot of space.....And you can get hedgehog pies from the buffet and a really good cup of coffee too! (NZ$7.50). The views of the moody mountains on the way goes to explain why they used NZ for filming 'The Lord Of The Rings'.

Sometimes it takes Google a while to work out that are really serious with your searches so it was only after I had booked places that I found this web site Gay Stay NZ, nonetheless I found Wellington City Gay Stay through Facebook, where the guys were so upset because they were already full, but undaunted I had already found The Korimoko Homestay on the Rainbow Tourism web site....

Now the boys, (all three of them), at Korimoko bill the place as an 'architectural curiosity', and don't let that put you off, nor the mention of steps as they are not as bad as they make out out (I had left bags at the YMCA in Wellington City because I was only staying one night and was off on the bus the following day), what you will have problem with is a taxi driver who can actually find the place.

I flatly refused to pay the fare on the meter, because we had been going round in circles for thirty minutes until he managed to home in on the place, and that was using GPS!

Once there they welcome was sufficient to make me feel at ease, and this is a house where people live, you become part of the family (I couldn't help once again making a comparison with the b and b's you get in Scotland where you are staying in a place where people spend their lives).

Cosy, comfortable, the everyday accoutrements of daily life, books, a kitchen with 'things' in it, messages on the front of the fridge, and a bottomless teapot with a decent cup of tea in it. I got the room in a goldfish bowl, which was slightly disconcerting until I woke in the morning and realised I wasn't at all overlooked and had a view across to Wellington city, albeit through a very rainy morning.

Gardens around Wellington, and in New Zealand generally, are an experience not to be missed and Korimoko located on a steep slope is no exception. The temperate climate (compared to Australia or Singapore) combined with (more than adequate) rainfall, and soil, results in the 'jungle' effect of which I personally am so fond and the garden here is enhanced by the natural slopes ot the ground. My favourite area is in front of the garden shed and if you fancy a bath then there are two outdoors in the garden!

If we are going to give points then 10/10 and that is from someone who runs a gay homestay themselves.

Regretfully I am leaving the following day and the

guys are kind enough to give me a lift to the bus station which is really platform 12 and three quarters at the railway station as I am heading north to the Hawkes Bay area, to Havelock North and Ngatahi Lodge. The bus trip takes some hours and like most of NZ the buses are regular and cheap and this is good way of seeing the countryside without the stress of driving, but really to get the best out of New Zealand you really need to hire a car for that extra bit of flexibility.

Whenever you book accommodation like this on the web you need to have a certain amount of trust and be prepared for the unexpected and like Korimoko in Wellington, what you get at Ngatahi is unexpected to! Having had a an exchange of emails you start to get to know people, rather like I do at Villa Ralfa, but I was surprised when John offered to pick me up in Hastings where the bus dropped me off, even better, as it was a bit late in the day, he waited while I did some grocery shopping for a basic evening meal as I didn't feel like exploring too much that night.

The accommodation at Ngatahi is mainly a 'motel style' block, but what is inside is anything but motel style. About the first thing that hits you in the eye, in the Queen room, is the bed, we have all seen metal framed beds, but never like this!
Not only is the bed impressive it's comfortable too and there are other nice touches in the room, like a good, solid, old fashioned chest of drawers, and the shower cubicle in the bathroom is plenty big enough for two (!), and I just love the tap on the washbasin.....

Of course by the time I get there it is just about dark so the real treats have to wait until the morning.

Apart from the great location, for visiting the art deco towns of Hastings and Napier both of which have some beautiful gift shops selling a lot of art deco sculpture and ceramics, and also for visiting the number of wineries in the area one of the most outstanding features of Ngatahi is the garden, or rather gardens, as it is divided into various areas surrounding the accommodation and the common room blocks. Without giving too much away there are meandering paths through trees and shrubs (and let's face it, us boys, we love a meandering path through trees and shrubs), there's a lake, there's rose garden with an outdoor bath (I told you NZ was a bit old fashioned!), and even a couple of chairs hidden in a corner covered with almost as much moss as I am.

While I was there I was also able to see the cottage that John and Henk also have to rent, separated as it is from the rest of the buildings, the cottage is ideal for those wanting a little more privacy!

Roughly in the middle of the grounds is a modern communal block containing a kitchen and a comfortable lounge area overlooking the lake, and with a barbecue area this provides a focal point for social activities.

Regretfully the demands of family and flights meant that I had to cut short my stay, otherwise I could have spent another week just exploring the garden!

The town of Havelock North is within walking distance, (John and Henk lent me a bicycle), so although you could self cater on site there is really no need to do so. I must make a comment here though, and although I cannot speak for the other rooms, mine did not have its own fridge, it would only take a couple of cases of wine or champers to fill the fridge in the common room and at busy times it would be difficult to keep your wine and food chilled, but apart from that I cannot fault this haven of tranquility which makes it ideal for those wanting a get away from it all place with mod cons! Well done guys!

Greece Bias Against Gays-Lesbians Compounds Debt Crisis as Tourism Suffers - Now Read On

A lot of LGBT people are likely to see this headline without reading the article and immediately think that far from being the cradle of Democracy that Greece has become the cradle of homophobia

To begin let me reassure prospective visitors to Greece that Greek people are some of the most welcoming people in the world. While they may not 'understand' homosexuality, as such they have no objection to gay people so you will not find yourselves singled out for 'special' treatment, you will be treated as a visitor to their country and hospitality will be extended to you on the same basis as any other visitors.

You know me I do not get political, I am usually too busy talking about holidays, but every so often I find something which really gets my goat......And this is it.

Doing the rounds of the gay (and other) press over the last couple of weeks has been this article from Bloomberg News, Greece Bias Against Gays-Lesbians Compounds Debt Crisis as Tourism Suffers Now as if the bad publicity that Greece has received because of strikes, demonstrations, and rising taxes were not enough, we get this......One of the best examples of irresponsible journalism that I have ever seen in my life, nothing like kicking a man when he is down!

So let's have a look at the article in more detail to see what it actually says.......

"Gay and lesbian tourists, who for decades flocked to the islands of Mykonos and Lesbos, have removed Greece from their list of top destinations because of discrimination, according to surveys by Amsterdam-based OutNow Consulting."

OutNow consulting are a company specialising in LGBT marketing, i.e. they tell companies and governments what they should do and how they should behave towards LGBT people which I personally find insulting as it suggests that I am a person with 'special needs'! So I had a look at their web site to see if I could see this survey, nowhere could I find a survey that said 'Are you avoiding Greece because they do not allow civil partnerships'? I did find last year's Global survey, and the ongoing 2020 survey, but neither of them has a question along the lines of 'Would you avoid a country that does not have same-sex partnerships'?

So how do they come to this conclusion?

"Greece failed to make the list of the top 10 countries where gay travelers were interested in taking a holiday in the next three years, according to the survey. Athens didn’t appear among the top 20 city destinations."

It is true that many people are avoiding Athens, not just the LGBT population, many visitors have been put off by seeing demonstrations, but if you look at the OutNow Global survey for 2010 you will notice that Athens is not even listed as a possible destination within the next 3 years, small wonder then that it doesn't appear in the top 20! Athens does appear in the 202o survey, but as this is not very representative, being only available in English, it can hardly be taken as fact!

So why are LGBT tourists eschewing Mykonos and Lesvos?

In the case of Mykonos the answer is easy....Mykonos is old hat. Forty years ago it was a gay island, until the mass tourism companies got hold of it and realised, probably along with the Mykonites themselves, that you couldn't make money just out of marketing to LGBT travellers, and as anyone can tell you LBGT visitors to Mykonos have long been a minority, indeed, in August and early September, Mykonos is a party island for Greek youth of all sexes! I suspect that the same applies to Lesvos. Whether we as LGBT people like it or not, we are only a small sector of the population and from my own experience we do not spend proportionally any more than anyone else does.

The Bloomberg article, and OutNow, conveniently ignore that fact that over the last forty years a veritable of host of new destinations has become available to travellers with the resources to visit them, which can also account for some of the reduction in tourism to many 'traditional' destinations. In fact, in spite of what the Greek government statistics may say, here on Crete, for many businesses July was the worst month they have had for many years from all sectors of the population not just LGBT.

To be fair to Bloomberg who published the article, they are only passing on information given to them, and the real culprits here are OutNow who are hoping to ingratiate themselves with the Greek government and earn a bit fat consultancy fee by pretending they have the answer to the problem (sorry Ian, I know you are a friend on Facebook, but you really are just looking for opportunities for new business).

"About 75 percent of gay travelers will seek a hotel that welcomes same-sex couples, according to Hannah Burden, spokeswoman for the Thomson, Thomson Cruises and First Choice holiday brands ofTui Travel Plc (TT/), the U.K. majority-owned unit of Germany-based Tui AG (TUI1)and Europe’s largest tour operator.

Thomson last year started marketing vacations for gay and lesbian travelers, including wedding packages to the Spanish island of Ibiza. The company uses the GayComfort Certified accreditation system, developed by OutNow and endorsed by the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association."

Well yes, but then again possibly no......While I do, to a certain amount, applaud the efforts of Thomson, a brief look at their LGBT brochure reveals that only one of their hotels is actually specifically LGBT and that is on Mykonos and a quick look at the most recent TripAdvisor reports reveals that they all say the same thing, which is that particular hotel is expensive....And this is another feature which has been reported about Mykonos over the last couple of years, it is an expensive island. In fact looking at Thomson's hotel details they have a very negative statement about the hotels 'being open to anyone over the age of 16 but be aware that gay people might be staying there'.....Well that applies to any hotel in the world, and is an open invitation for homophobic people to book into the same hotel and jeer at the gay people or even worse physically attack them. It is also guaranteed to put off straight people with children!

The only real involvement as far as TUI is concerned is putting bums on (uncomfortable) aircraft seats and putting bodies in beds and if you believe they are in business to make anything but a profit then you are sorely mistaken.

The point that is most often missed about tourism is, that it is going to take place irrespective of gay marriage or civil rights. In the case of Greece of course we have several thousand years of history and civilisation and it is rather a case of, 'if you want to see the Pyramids you have to go to Egypt' so if you want to see the Acropolis you have to go to Greece, and if you want to see Angkor Wat.....

As an LGBT person you might like to think that everyone at your holiday destination gets treated the same way as you do in your home country, but you should always remember that wherever you go you are supposed to respect the laws and customs of that country. As things change only slowly in Greece you could well be waiting some time if you intend to boycott Greece until the legalise same-sex unions! It is highly unlikely in the near future that same-sex marriages will be recognised, as such a thing is not within the realms of understanding of many Greek people, even if it were made legal there would be very few Greeks who would take advantage of it as the social structure does not allow for it! You can hardly describe the lack of same-sex partnerships as 'bias' in any case. And legislation does cost money in spite of what the article says and the financial gain by enacting legislation is in any case open to question as the evidence for the 'Pink Dollar' is rather anecdotal......

So what can Greece do to improve its tourism when it already gets 19 million tourists a year?

Where the Greek tourism industry falls down is by not extracting enough cash from the existing tourists because, in spite of what you may hear, Greece has some of the cheapest accommodation in the world, what makes it appear expensive is the mark up put on it by the foreign mass tourism companies and until the Greek government address this by specifying a minimum rate for accommodation or by openly discouraging mass tourism not a lot is going to change and this of course has nothing to do with the sexual preferences of the prospective visitors!

The Gay Crete Blog Visits......Singapore!

Is this man off his trolley??

Why....I hear you ask.....Would someone who runs a gay and lesbian homestay on Crete, Greece, be writing about Singapore? Is he off his trolley or what?

And why in the middle of the summer season?

Not at all...As some of you may remember I took my holidays in Australasia last year and I do like to share myexperiences, and also around this time of year is a good time to think about booking if you are heading towards Australia or New Zealand for a holiday during the southern summer, so here are is a little bit about our trip last winter and what I found in Singapore for the gay traveller.

Singapore is not a name that springs to mind for a holiday and sadly many travellers use it only as a stopover on the way to somewhere else not as a destination in itself, and certainly not a gay destination. Which is a shame because Singapore has much to offer in its own right, and of course, it is also close to many other destinations so can be used as a part of an 'Asian' holiday itinerary.

First off, as usual, book your flights early. I made my bookings in August last year for outward travel in November and return in December, (you can look at the blogs below to see how I got on!), and got some excellent prices on flights with Singapore Air. Of course I am travelling from Europe, and Singapore is something of a hub for many flights from Europe to Down Under so there is plenty of choice of airlines and schedules.

Bear in mind this is a long trip and not something you can leave to chance, so plan ahead!

I flew from London Heathrow on one of SIA's new fleet of A380's not long after Qantas had had an engine failure on one of its new A380's, but hey, life is an adventure.....

Singapore is not a place that is associated with gay or lesbian travel, and in some ways it does have a bit of a bad history with its treatment of LGBT people. But like many other places, things change, and the Singapore scene is quite lively with a number of venues.....Or so it turns out because when I was booking my trip, Google was producing nothing of value in searches for 'gay Singapore', nevertheless, undeterred I asked a few questions on Gay Travellers Network and got back a very useful reply!

I had already found a hotel that was listed on one of the Australian gay travel web sites, and as it also appeared on the Singapore tourism web site, and as I liked the look of it, I had already booked at The Berjaya which is just on the edge of Chinatown, and as luck would have it, this is exactly where most of the gay bars are situated and there is a handy MRT station too.

Although I found the Berjaya listed as gay friendly, it is not a gay hotel. It is however, comfortable, fashionably old fashioned, (not only do they make the room up every morning, but in the evening they come and turn the bed down for you), and from the outside seems to say to me 'Tunbridge Wells'. The staff are delightfully helpful and actually greet you as you walk up to the reception desk, instead of walking off into the back office like they do in Europe.

It is not the cheapest place around, but then visitors to (and residents of), Greece, are spoilt by having some of the cheapest hotel and apartment accommodation in the world! Expect to pay upwards of S$150 per night for a room here (about €90), but the beds are huge, and in my bathroom the shower cubicle stretched the width of the room with enough space to accommodate at least half a football team (and maybe more). Not only that a bit of fruit comes for free and also a daily newspaper and tea and coffee. Breakfast is available as an extra, but to be honest while I was waiting for my room to be prepared for me (I had asked for an early check in which actually took three hours!), I did take a cup of coffee, (which I expected to be free, but actually cost me S$5.85), and it was dire, so for those who need their early morning caffeine fix I recommend the coffee shop across the road.

The room was air-conditioned (no extra charge) so the first thing I did was turn it off and open a window, I had a bit of a struggle with housekeeping for the next 24 hours as they came in and turned it on, I came in and turned it off, but finally they got the point.

On the downside, and this goes for most of Singapore, if you are addicted to your iPhone or Blackberry, then forget accessing free WiFi anywhere... The Berjaya charges S$8 per hour for use of their WiFi, and you have to use the whole hour in one go! If you once log off the network you have to pay for another hour! However I can let you into a small secret, but not just yet.......

So let's get off with the places to go.......

Just around the corner from the Berjaya is Neil Road.......Here, discreetly placed in a porticoed terrace of shops are three gay bars virtually in a row. I am only here for three nights and even I cannot drink that amount especially when I am trying to get over the jet lag, so visits are necessarily brief.

First off is DYMK, which is short for 'Does Your Mother Know', the clientele are mainly in pairs or in groups, so it is very much a place where you go with friends, even at the bar everyone seems to be in couples. The music is not loud so you can hear yourself think, the barman (on the day I was there), has spent a reasonable amount of time in the gym, and has some fascinating tattoos, and a beautiful smile, and a 330ml bottle of beer costs S$10. They were having a promotional night with sparkling rose (cannot remember whether it was Martini or Asti!), which was running out at S$75 a bottle, and literally it was running, they were opening them as fast as they could. They do cocktails and they are not cheap either, at the other end of the bar where two people sharing a cocktails that seemed to have everything in it, was actually on fire at one stage, and then had a few more shots of various spirits thrown in it as they drank through their respective straws.....The 'Mother' in the name could well refer to the guy on the till, who looks at you through a pair of designer spectacle frames and very efficiently relieves you of your cash and seems to know exactly what you have had even though you were right up at the other end of the bar. Pleasantly relaxing place with plenty to watch if you are on your own!

Next door is 'Lockerroom', which describes it very well....Most of the furniture seems to be lockers with a couple of shower cubicles thrown in....They were having a 'dark night' the night I visited although whether they were trying to conjure up a 'dark room' atmosphere or just saving on the electric bill was unclear, in fact nothing was clear because it was pitch black and full of smoke from a smoke machine. The music is loud. Reading the menu was impossible, but at this stage I did gather that in Singapore, even if you are sitting at the bar you are expected to order drinks from the waiters not from the barman. A 330ml bottle of beer here is S$9

When my eyes got used to the light I did manage to discern that sitting at the bar were a row of 'expats', and the staff seem to be wearing very skimpy shorts.......

Further along is Taboo, they were having a promotional night as well...Well actually it was a 'as much as you can drink for S$20 night', but the flesh is weak, even if the spirit is willing and Taboo and Tantric (just across the road) are going to have to wait for another time as this bunny is off to bed after 24 hours without a sleep!!

Chinatown is not far from the Berjaya Hotel and here you will find a wide selection of Asian foods day and night, I ate here two nights of my stay, for S$18 including a 500ml bottle of Tiger Beer and three dishes to go with it, don't forget you will have the usual Singapore problem of getting rice if you want it!

But also in Chinatown is The Backstage Bar, now I spotted the rainbow flag easily enough during a shopping trip through the market (Chinese silk cushion covers S$2 each!), finding the door is a little harder but it is there in the portico on the main street....

Wherever I go there is always a bar that makes a mark and this on has got to be it in Singapore......In a way it is quite 'pubby', but you know you are in a different country, the music is there all around you, the surroundings are not too bright, (in fact on reflection it could maybe, do with a coat of paint), the staff are lovely, and although you order a drink at the bar they take you to a seat and bring it too you....Best of all there is a balcony where you can sit outside (in the humid Singapore night!) and look over and see what the poor people are doing down in the street........The clientele is mixed, racewise, with expats from more than one country, along with a good selection of the locals, and if you are on your own they will stop and talk to you as they pass, if only to see what you are doing there. Don't get me wrong the other bars are not un-friendly, but here there is more interest in you!

Needless to say I spent some time in the Backstage Bar, and more than once.......

In fact the LGBT visitor to Singapore can visit a different bar at least 6 times in a week....Not a bad average compared to a lot of holiday destinations.

But what else can the gay traveller do in Singapore? Well really much the same as any other one!

Singapore has always been a good place for shopping and little has changed there, in Chinatown the street markets yield textiles and other decorative items, including some that are far too big for your suitcase, but on the other hand many shops will arrange shipping for you. I found that you get a better deal in the older, smaller, shopping centres such as the People's centre near Chinatown, they tend to be more flexible on prices than the newer centres! Around Chinatown too you can buy very cheaply those items for the more alternative lifestyles such as dried white chrysanthemum flowers at bargain prices. There are also a wide range of textiles in both Chinese and Indian styles for the home decorator.

A small piece of advice if you are continuing your journey from Singapore to Australia, the Australians X-ray your bags on the way into Australia, they do not take kindly to high value items being brought in from Singapore, in fact they will charge you tax on them! If you are buying anything expensive, then buy it on the way back!

At the time of my visit I was having a problem with plantar fasciitis, and after a couple of days walking around Singapore it had certainly not improved, just around the corner from the Berjaya Hotel there is small acupuncture practice, a 30 minute treatment cost only S$15, far less than you would pay in the UK for instance.....Although it didn't cure it, it certainly relieved it!

In general, Singapore can be quite cheap for the LGBT traveller provided you watch where you eat as many places are 'tax free' look for the signs saying 'Nett Prices', elsewhere you will get GST/VAT added on! As ever avoid the tourist traps of which Old Boat Quay is one, although a visit to Harry's Bar is still essential while in Singapore. And if you are going to Raffles for a Singapore Sling, then take your credit card with you.

From zoos, to botanic gardens, to mini cruises, to the Singapore Flyer, to SkyPark, to museums, there are a number of attractions to keep any visitor occupied. You can even go to the beach!

A little hint for the Internet....Many places will give you the access code for their WiFi if you are a customer.....Find a coffee shop with a convenient place to sit outside but not in the cafe or restaurant, as they never seem to change the pass code you can continue to use it during your stay. While I was staying at the Berjaya, I discovered that you could pick up the network from the Uluru Steakhouse behind the hotel, for a few dollars I bought a glass of wine and also got the code for the WiFi.

Getting around Singapore is easy and can be cheap too. The MRT goes from the airport into the city, there is also what they call the 'Ground Transport Bus' which will take you to your hotel door from Changi Airport for S$9, although it will stops in the road outside Raffles, presumably because it makes too much of a mess on the gravel drive! And you can do a lot of walking!

For information on gay venues try www.utopia-asia.com there are now a number of hotels/homestays listed, more than there were last year. More information on Singapore generally go to www.visitingsingapore.com

Villa Ralfa Goes ‘On Tour’ Down Under - Part One.....Bookings Flights and The Pitfalls of Using a Credit Card.

Booking your holidays as an independent gay or lesbian traveller has never been easier and here are some of my experiences and do’s and dont’s, when booking your tickets and accommodation.

Yes, even humble gay hotel owners from Crete, Greece sooner or later need a break from home and as avid followers who hang on my every word, (you do, don’t you?), you will know that I am a great exponent of booking holidays independently, eschewing the conventional travel agents and travel web sites but you do need to a bit of planning, especially if you have a lot of stopovers and side trips to make!

I don’t say that it would have been impossible to book this through an agency, but I think even the most patient of travel agents would have been tearing their hair out after this one.

First off, plan your holiday.

I know this sounds silly, after all you are supposed to be taking it easy, but you cannot start to book anything unless you know where you are going and why! If you just want sun, sea, sand, and maybe a bit of sex thrown in then anywhere where you are going to find these, will do, well almost....Forward planning is essential (as is booking flights well in advance to make sure you get a seat and more often the best prices, and if you work in an organisation, that you will be able to take the time off when you want it).

In my case and this holiday, I wanted to go and see friends and relatives in Australia and New Zealand, catch up with my partner’s two boys and their children, and also visit some places like Alice Springs and Ayers Rock, that I never got to see when I lived in Perth, WA. And also make at least part of the journey across Australia by rail, something I wanted to do even before Michael Palin did it!

But I wanted to do it in a relaxing way with not too much flying and not too many airports.....I am going on holiday after all! And I have a month to do it.

Second, what you will need.

A credit card (or debit card, although some airlines will not take these), with plenty of credit on it, and an expiry date beyond your date of return. I say this because some airlines will not accept a card which expires before your return journey. Or that expires before you leave come to that.

Thirdly, check whether you need a visa to visit your chosen destination.

There are still many countries that require you to have a visa. In this case I am travelling to Australia which certainly does. Fortunately you no longer have to visit an Australian High Commission or Embassy to get this, and you do not need to go through a visa ‘agency’ either, as you can do it on line. (Some more advice on using the Australian on line visa application follows later).

Always apply for visas before you do anything else, they are usually valid for a year, and sometimes they do get refused, so if you have already paid for your airfare you are not going to get it back.

With the benefit of hindsight I will say, ‘Do not even look at flights until you have got the visa’.

So off we go.....

From my point of view it is easier for me to fly from Athens and like most International airport’s the AIA web site lists the airlines and destinations serviced, OK, I have flown Singapore Airlines before, and guess what? They do a flight on exactly the day I want it, giving me time to do a stopover in Singapore to recover from the time difference before I hit Perth. Even better the Singapore web site gives you the chance to book multiple ‘legs’ too, useful, if like me, you want to travel overland, but pick up a return flight from Auckland NZ.

First mistake is actually to go through the process to find out how much it costs....And I haven’t got a visa yet....And the price I get back is superb to say the least.

Putting in the on line application for an Australian visa is not easy. There are pages and pages of it, and lots of boxes to fill in. Make sure you save each page as you complete it and or course, make a note of the reference number!!!! You will need it to recall and complete the application if anything goes wrong, and on the day I did it there was nothing but problems with my Internet connection. At the end of the process there was no acknowledgment screen as I expected. So has it been sent or not? Three days later I am still not sure and trying to navigate through the web site to see the status of the application is well nigh impossible! Finally I enlisted the help of a friend in Perth who called the visa office, (in Tasmania, I believe), who confirmed that they had got it and were processing it manually because something had gone wrong. (Tell me about it!)

By this stage I am worrying about whether my nice cheap convenient flight would still be available! Checking the Singapore web site still shows it.....On day 4 my application for the Australian visa appears on their system, and three days after that I get the visa itself. Fast work there boys!

Too late, the flight I wanted is now full, and, all of a sudden, the flight from Auckland back to Singapore has trebled in price....Disappointment could have set in at this point, but hey, I allowed for a bit of flexibility didn’t I?

Well, actually, no I didn’t. A further check on flights doesn’t really help because returning later puts me too close to Christmas, and leaving earlier is too soon because I have arranged the house and dog-sitter already....And in the meantime I have been checking out my rail journeys in Australia and the Indian Pacific only travels on two days a week, and as I have decided to take The Ghan from Adelaide to Alice, then that trip is also pretty well fixed too.

Always have a Plan B, or C, or D, or Z even.

In this case, depart from a different airport. A quick check shows that Singapore Air, (and other airlines) have more frequent departures from London Heathrow, and although I was trying to avoid the extra flights, it was always in the back of my mind. Being idle doesn’t always pay off!

As we have visas in place and have organised some extra credit on my card, it makes sense to book the flight straight away, working out how to get from Crete to London Heathrow can wait! Available flights are leaving when I want, and strangely the Auckland NZ to Singapore leg that was so expensive before has now gone down!

I work my way through the booking process, making sure that I am not trying to depart from somewhere that I haven’t got to yet, and we arrive at the final screen ready to press the button that says ‘BUY’, except nothing happens.....Go back, click ‘Refresh’, re-send the data, try again....Just a message clearly placed there by my card provider. Close browser, clear data, try again, going all the way through the whole process again...Still no joy. (In the meantime I am also getting a warning message from Singapore Air that my credit card expires before I am travelling and that I will need to take my card to their nearest office to get is validated!)

Now incensed, I call my card provider in the UK (from Greece at peak time!), thinking that they have mucked up the increased credit limit, ‘Not so,’ says the young gentleman I speak to. I read the message out loud to him, ‘Ahh,’ he says, ‘I will put you through to ‘Clicksafe’, and finally get a nice Irish lady, and after explaining things to her she tells me that they are actually a separate company acting as sub-contractors to my card provider. After taking me through security, (one day they will ask something else other than my DOB and if there are any other card holders), she asks me what I am trying to do, I tell her and she says ‘That is what I can see here too’. Sometimes these people are so helpful.

‘You can’t do that with that card,’ she says, ‘Your credit limit isn’t high enough.’

I explain that the credit limit has been increased by the card provider.

‘Ah yes,’ she says, ‘But that is nothing to do with our credit limit. You can only use it up to £50.’

I don’t know whether they have ‘Clicksafe’ in other countries, I sincerely hope not, and if you can avoid signing up with it if you are in the UK, then do so.....

By now I am getting really pee’d off, and have done several ‘Back’ clicks on the Singapore Air web site trying, successfully, to retain the flight and price.

She takes me through a further set of security questions, omitting to ask me my inside leg measurement and the results of any recent sperm count. And finally tells me to try again.

Having not refreshed the screen often enough, the Singapore web site has now timed out due to inactivity! Fortunately for the world at large, starting all over again I finally get to book the flight.

Now you might think this is the end of this story, but of course, this is me we are talking about.

With plentiful flights from Crete to Athens, and Athens to London, during the winter months there is no rush to get on with the connecting flights, but train journeys within Australia, and now that I have had time to look more closely, New Zealand as well, are now priority jobs if I am to avoid flying again for a while after I get to Perth.

Buying through an Australian web site is something of an experience, for a start they don’t ask for the CCV number on the back, and they don’t worry about expiry dates on cards either, even though I am travelling after the expiry date. Even better the Great Southern Railway allows you to book and only pay a deposit, a great help of your credit is limited. And to be honest the whole booking is experience seems more relaxing and laid back, than, say Singapore Airlines, or even Easyjet!

I try to book the Indian Pacific from Perth to Adelaide. Without much information and no informative error messages it just tells me that they cannot complete the transaction and try again later. I try again later, but this time booking The Ghan from Adelaide to Alice. Success, all goes well and I even get the email confirmation for instructions on paying the balance.

I try the Indian Pacific again, still no joy.

I try to book my Easyjet flights to and from Athens to London, that will not work either, but then I manage to book those with a debit card which expires in two days time. Don’t you just love Easyjet?

I try to book flights with Aegean for the Crete/Athens leg with my credit card, no it definitely does not want to work.

I try to book the Indian Pacific again, still no joy. In desperation because it is important, I use my Greek credit card, hey presto, it works. So what is wrong with my English credit card?

The following morning I am emailed a copy of a letter from the security department of my card provider in the UK. They have tried to phone me, they say, which is a lie, because the only number they have is a UK mobile and that has not rung in weeks. In the meantime they have blocked my card for suspicious activity and could I please call them.

To bloody right I can call them, in peak time again too because they only work 9 to 5. I am not sure what happens if you want to report a stolen card outside those times.

Finally after more security questions during which I asked, in a voice heavy with sarcasm, if they would like my vaccination certificates too, and explaining why I am trying to use my card outside the UK, I get the block lifted. Is this something to do with the financial crisis in the UK I wonder?

And with my heart aflutter and a song on my lips, I manage to book the Indian Pacific, and the Transcenic rail journey from Auckland to Wellington.

This is more than enough for one blog, so I will leave you with the pleasant thought that I still have to book some internal flights in Oz and NZ. And I haven’t even started on accommodation yet!

Part Two will deal with the impossibility of finding true LGBT hotels and accommodation around the world, and booking a flight with the Australian version of Ryanair!

Take The Gay and Lesbian Community Survey 2010

So we are being urged to do, in fact there is a link to it on my Villa Ralfa web site here to save you looking any further.

'There are lies, damn lies, and statistics' was once quoted by Mark Twain, originally attributed to Disraeli, but appearing nowhere in any of his writings, the phrase is nonetheless, still true today.

The Gay and Lesbian Community Survey is, of course, a worthy cause in itself, but it will only mean anything if enough LGBT people complete it.

Even then the only accurate piece of information that you can glean from it is how many people actually took the survey!

So why should I be asking you to do it? Mainly because it has now gone international and with the help of the GLBT community in countries other than America we can set some of the statistics right!

From here on, are my personal opinions based on my personal experience over 40 years of being part of the LGBT community, living on two continents and travelling in many countries and meeting hundreds and very possibly thousands of LGBT people. I have also been involved in four businesses owned and run by LGBT people.

Of course you can comment as you wish, but make the comments constructive please.

So let's look at the purpose of the survey first.

The survey results will almost certainly be used to sell things to the LGBT market, some marketeers will use to their own advantage by saying to companies 'You have no LGBT marketing strategy, you are missing out on a lot of money. For the measly sum of several thousand dollars we will advise you on how you can sell to the LGBT community, and train your staff to deal with LGBT clients.' (Makes me feel like I am a person with 'special needs')

Of course we are looking at the value of the 'Pink Pound' or Dollar or whatever here, and bearing in mind that the survey was designed for the US, the bottom income bracket is far too high for many other countries, including Greece, where I live. Immediately then us in Greece will be discounted for the results as not worth marketing to as we don't have any money.

Hardly fair is it?

A good income in Greece is around US$15,000 pa, with many earning much less, especially those in the tourist industry who work for only six months of the year! But does this make us poverty stricken? Well no it doesn't. But what it does do is put into question this whole thing about the value of the 'Pink Economy'.

In my experience, gathered over 40 years, LGBT people are no more likely to be wealthier or poorer than straight people, particularly, as by choice, many GLBT people are likely to be in lower paid work such as social services (which we are extremely good at, I might add).

Taking another example from the survey, 'How much bottled/mineral water do you drink a week?' This is obviously aimed at the countires where drinking bottled water is a status symbol. In my answers it wouldn't let me put in the actual amount as the maximum is 36, and for many people in Greece this answer would be similar. Now before anyone gets their cheque book out to pay for a multi-million euro advertising campaign in Greece selling expensive designer bottled water, let me point out that in general we don't drink the tap water in Greece, and those five 'waters' that I drank outside my home were taken with the five coffees I had outside my home each week, and I didn't pay for them either because in Greece the water comes with the coffee automaitically! (Damn, perhaps I shouldn't have said that...I always like it when companies make disastrous marketing errors. Who remembers that slogan 'You're never alone with a Strand'?).

Another one from the survey. The section about your feelings towards companies and their 'outreach' to the GLBT community. How about a box to tick which says 'It makes no difference'?
And let's face it, if you have, say, an airline with nice flight times, good service, and an excellent safety record, but no 'outreach', and another with crappy planes, bad flight times, and a bad safety record, but excellent 'outreach', which one are you really going to choose?

As a bit of brand loyalty here, if I am flying internally in Greece, I go with Aegean because they have these really nice moist pecan nut cookies, the coffee they give you to go with them is dire, but the cookies are NICE.

I mentioned previously that I had been involved with gay owned and run businesses in the past, from my experience in those businesses, being LGBT owned/friendly/run does not necessarily mean you will attract LGBT clients! Clients go where they want to go and about the only place where it makes a distinct difference is with bars and clubs. You will see around the Internet, (you do use the Internet don't you? A lot of LGBT people do not, which makes an Internet based survey open to doubt), stories of companies seeing huge increases in business after LGBT marketing campaigns, these should be taken with a pinch of salt, after all how can they tell if you are LGBT or not? Is it tatooed on your head? Is there a tick box on the online booking form on the web site? It is more likely that the advertising campaign as a whole led to increased sales irresepective of the target group.

I think personally that they should ask us more about travel and holidays too.

Having said all this, DO take the survey, DO answer the questions honestly, and DO remember to put in the right country. A sudden upsurge in answers outside of the norms that the marketeers are expecting will make then think again about their approach.

DO also complete the last page with the extra questions and DO sign up for the possibility of being in working groups. I was fortunate enough to be involved in one of these last year, employed by an electronic manufacturer who was suffering a severe fall in sales, when he finally got the results he thanked us all by email and said 'I do not know how we got it so wrong'.

You can find a link to the survey through my web site at http://www.villaralfa.com, and you will find Community Marketing Inc here