Tours For Lesbians And Gays Increase

Gay and lesbian travel seems to be out of the closet for good, with tours and cruises for this market increasing in number and visibility. Companies like Cunard and American Airlines are now lending their familiar emblems to targeted sales brochures.

The International Gay Travel Association now has 1,000 members, 65 percent of them travel agents, in the estimate of David Alport, the group’s vice president, who is also the publisher of the gay travel newsletter Out & About.

And last year, for the first time, the Gay Travel Association participated in the convention of the American Society of Travel Agents, held in Lisbon.

There is certainly a shakeout, too. Lorry Heverly, an agent in Baton Rouge, who went into business a year ago to serve gay and lesbian clients, said she actually put together one tour herself, a trip to New Orleans at Halloween, when the French Quarter turns into a vast masquerade. The program did not sell well, she said.

Asked about this apparent paradox - an event that has been a natural sells badly as a package - Billy Kolber, editor of Out & About, said that a number of companies new in the field assumed that listing a trip as an “all-gay departure” for, say, a safari would be enough.

But operators and agents have found that this approach does not succeed, he said, because gay clients can be perfectly comfortable on a mainstream safari.

The owners of Out & About, who say it has a circulation of 6,500, believe that much of the agent interest stems from a need to find loyal clients in hard times. “Travel agents are delighted to find that this underserved community is so loyal,” Kolber said. Out & About is published 10 times a year and a subscription costs $49 in the United States: 8 West 19th Street, Suite 401, New York, NY 10011; (800) 929-2268 or (212) 645-6922.

When “gay travel” became heard in the mainstream world, probably about 1990, the term was presumed to include lesbians, or gay women. But some women began to feel invisible. All-women cruises are increasing, and Alaska is a prime destination.

Charlie Rounds, the new president of RSVP Travel Productions, which until now has aimed at gay men, said the company was offering three allwomen cruises on Seaspirit, the company’s 100-passenger vessel.

On April 30, the ship will embark on a seven-night cruise along the west coast of Costa Rica, with fares starting at $1,295 in double occupancy. Rounds said that a sevennight Alaska cruise, leaving July 8 from Juneau at the same fares as the Costa Rica cruise, was selling best and would probably sell out.

Even so, RSVP will not offer allwomen or all-men cruises after this year. “We will focus on community: all of us all the time,” Rounds said. RSVP’s trips are available only through travel agents. 2800 University Avenue Southeast, Minneapolis, Minn. 55414; (800) 328-7787 or (612) 379-4697.

Meanwhile, Jan Cooper of Special Expeditions in New Jersey has scheduled a women’s cruise in Alaska for July 30 to Aug. 6. Cooper said, “We have been operating voyages in Alaska for over 13 years and this is a personal effort to bring women from all over the continental United States to meet with the women of Alaska.”

For this, Elfin Cove, a community run mostly by women because the men are out fishing, is a particular destination. The 70-passenger Sea Lion will sail from Sitka and return to Juneau. The fare, in double occupancy, ranges from $2,860 to $3,980. Special Expeditions: 123 South Avenue East, Westfield, N.J. 07090; (800) 348-2358 or (908) 654-0048.

Olivia Cruises and Resorts in Oakland, Calif., a company catering to lesbians, is offering a seven-night Alaska cruise departing from Seward, Alaska, or Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on June 21 aboard the Royal Cruise Line’s Royal Odyssey, with a capacity of 750 passengers. Fares start at $1,595 in double occupancy.