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TravelMole Interview: Jonathan Klein, owner, Now, Voyager Worldwide Travel Service.
In the wake of same-sex marriages, reporters have regularly been calling Jonathan Klein, owner of one of San Francisco’s largest gay travel agencies, to ask about the impact on business. His response: “People think we’ve been flooded with all these honeymoon trips. But the truth is we really haven’t been much affected, or maybe not at all.” He adds that there may be a delayed reaction sometime in the future that will spike business. The New York Times reported that same-sex marriages were giving San Francisco tourism “a welcome boost.“ Some hotels were reporting up to 20% increases in bookings, the newspaper said. But it’s too early to tell whether same sex marriages that began in February had any impact on the overall tourism market, according to Laurie Armstrong, vice president of the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau. Mr Klein’s 20-year-old Now Voyager travel agency has $4 million annually in sales, mostly to a gay clientele though he has also straight customers as well. “I constantly hear that the gay market is the one bright spot in travel over the last few years,” he said. And gays not only tend to love travel, but also have discretionary income. The downside of that, Mr Klein pointed out: “People want information from us, but gay people often love the internet. And even some of my clients I thought were loyal and faithful are preferring to book things on line. We can certainly understand that when they get the best prices there.“ Mr Klein also pointed out that, even when booking cruises, gays can be disappointing to travel professionals. “Gay people almost always travel in singles or couples, whereas straight people often travel as entire families. So if I was booking a family cruise, I might book two or three cabins, while I book a gay cruise and all I get is one cabin,” he said. Report by David Wilkening In the end, he said, it’s hard to generalize about differences between gay and straight travelers because they are all diverse. “For some gay travelers, it’s important to meet other gays. Others just want to save money. So the truth is that there is diversity among gay travelers, just as there is among straight ones,” he said.
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