- Anita Thomsen
4. term, Tourism, Master (Master Programme)
During recent years, the focus on homosexual tourists has been, and still is, increasing, which is a result of the tourism industry’s pursuit of the so-called Pink Dollar. Homosexual men are in particular interesting seeing as they apparently have a higher purchasing power than their lesbian and heterosexual counterparts. Also Danish homosexual men experience this increasing attention, however, the field of Danish homosexual men in a tourism context, thus far, seemingly is an unexplored field of study meaning that the tourism industry knows little, or perhaps nothing, about these men.This thesis is partly a theoretical and partly an empirical study of the holiday preferences and motivations of Danish homosexual men, and the role of holiday consumption in the creation of a homosexual identity. The purpose of the thesis is to generate knowledge that can be used by Danish tourism actors in their pursuit of Danish homosexual men.Both qualitative and quantitative data constitute the empirical data that will be used in the study – interviews with five Danish homosexual men and a questionnaire survey, respectively. The results of the analysis show that Danish homosexual men have more holiday preferences and that they share some preferences, whereas they do not share others. For instance, a vast majority of the participants in the study prefer to holiday in big European cities such as Berlin, London, Paris and Amsterdam, while only few of them prefer active holidays. Additionally, the analysis shows that the holiday motivations of Danish homosexual men vary according to the type and purpose of the holiday; the destination; and according to who the men travel with. Consequently, it is difficult to make some conclusive statements about the holiday motivations of Danish homosexual men. Regarding what role tourism consumption play in the construction of a homosexual identity the findings in the analysis indicate that the men mainly use holidays with the purpose of identifying with certain groups of people, while they simultaneously differentiate themselves from other groups. It is important to notice though that this is only an indication seeing as it is based on the narratives of merely five Danish homosexual men. Lastly, it can be concluded that Danish homosexual men are just as diverse as heterosexual men and consequently they do not constitute a homogenous market segment.
Language | English |
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Publication date | 2008 |
Publishing institution | Aalborg Universitet |