What LGBTQ Millennials Want Out of Travel

Once upon a time, queer travel generally meant well-to-do older gay men taking luxe guided tours or younger gay men partying on cruise ships. Today, travel agents realize that the market encompasses so much more of the LGBTQ community, including previously unimagined areas such as honeymoons and family travel.

In fact, LGBTQ travelers command $5 trillion worth of global spending power. They spend $100 billion on travel in the United States alone.

Grindr Travel Surveys queried its U.S. audience during April and September, and the results were recently released. The report shows some interesting insights on queer millennial travelers. Fully 40 percent of them travel at least quarterly, while 24 percent do so monthly. Of those, 39 percent plan trips 1-3 months in advance, with a similar number—35 percent—doing so 3-6 months in advance.

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With 54 percent of these queer millennials owning a passport, international travel is a key area of interest. Of those surveyed, 41 percent have traveled internationally, with another 41 percent saying that it is a near-term goal. In fact, Grindr says that about 36 million of the overnight visitors who traveled to international destinations globally were LGBTQ travelers.

But where do they want to go? Many of the destinations are popular gay-friendly locations:

—Italy

—France

—Hawaii

—New York City

—Australia

—United Kingdom

—Greece

—Spain

—Japan

—Las Vegas

Top things these travelers are looking for include nightlife, local culture, cuisine, sightseeing, museums, quirky attractions and parks. Wineries and breweries were rated as interesting by fewer reviewers.

READ MORE: Attracting Millennial Employees to Your Travel Agency

Other findings from Grindr:

—61 percent said that gay-friendly reputation is important when selecting a destination, airline or lodging

—Having a dedicated queer website makes 75 percent of millennials more likely to visit that destination

—Millennials say that hotels’ queer-friendly reputations are more of a motivation to them than for any other age group

—71 percent of gay millennials focus on review sites online, while a mere 22 percent plan trips using tourism bureau websites

—76 percent say they can’t wait to take a cruise

READ MORE: Business Travel Habits by Generation

Another thing to know about millennial travel is that apps are a real part of their experience when they’re on the road.

Just over half of them prefer to use mobile apps to guide them when in a strange place and half also use travel site apps. Additionally, 31 percent of gay men report that they used dating apps when vacationing and two-thirds of queer travelers took advantage of Uber or Lyft to get around.