As part of the “LGBT Travel Trends” series sponsored by Community Marketing & Insights, this is the second interview of the four.

Richard Gray is the Managing Director for LGBT Markets for the Greater Ft. Lauderdale Visitors Bureau. He has won awards from MTV and Logo, is an inductee into the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Hall of Fame, and is a Ft. Lauderdale Hometown Hero.

At the 14th Annual Conference on LGBT Tourism & Hospitality, Richard was the first person that I sat down with and interviewed.  Unfortunately, the video did not turn out and we had some sound interference that we had to work through, but had a great conversation.  This interview covers:

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• The evolution of Ft. Lauderdale to a top LGBT travel destination
  
• Richard’s career in the tourism industry, starting with opening a gay resort called the Royal Palms in 1991
  
• LGBT owned businesses in Ft. Lauderdale: bars, nightlife, and restaurants such as DAPUR
  
• Career advice for those who are getting started or looking to jump start their own careers
  
• The importance of giving back to the community
  

Below is a full transcript of the interview:

Thank you for being here and sponsoring the event, Richard. 

I would like to say something to everyone first – hello Sunny! We are all about sunshine here in greater Fort Lauderdale and we’ve evolved over the last seventeen years.  We started our LGBT initiative seventeen years ago and it was almost an overnight sensation. We marketed in a handful of publications and we gradually developed and we learned the market and now our strategy has kind of changed a little bit with integrating our LGBT strategy into our mainstream marketing initiative because we believe that is the next step in LGBT travel.

How did you get started in this industry?

I actually used to own a gay resort called the Royal Palms and I opened that resort in 1991.  As you can tell from my accent, I am from Britain, even though I am an American citizen now.  I used to live in New York and I fell in love with Fort Lauderdale, the Venice of America – palm trees, the ocean, the weather.  I was attracted by the incredible diversity here and somehow my heart told me that this was a destination that was going to become world famous. Don’t ask me, I can’t say the exact words, but I just felt that this was going to become a world class destination.

How did Fort Lauderdale evolve into this gay metropolis destination?

One of the advantages we have here in Greater Fort Lauderdale as a destination is that we have an extraordinary LGBT infrastructure.  We have a huge resident lesbian and gay population first of all, probably 15% of the population here is LGBT.  Combine that with tourism, currently we have over a million LGBT travelers visiting Fort Lauderdale spending close to one and a half billion dollars which is an extraordinarily large economic impact.  We actually don’t even call the LGBT market a niche market, it’s a market.  We have this incredibly large local resident lesbian and gay population and we have probably one of the largest LGBT night scenes in the United States. We have oodles and oodles of gay bars and hundreds of LGBT owned and operated businesses.  Whatever is your flavor, we have it.

Let’s talk a little more about that.  It’s my first time here and I’m sure everybody at the event wants to go out afterward.  What are some of the great things to do that are LGBT friendly here, I’m sure you have a lot to choose from.

We do and I’m very happy to be sitting next to a virgin so that makes me feel very excited.  (laughter) It depends what you want.  Wilton Manors is definitely the hub of the LGBT night scene.  Often people like to start out at Rosie’s and have a casual drink, maybe a hamburger, etc. before they move on to other venues but that’s always a good start.

What about restaurants?  Are there any LGBT-owned restaurants that you would highly recommend?

Well certainly.  DAPUR is (on US 1) and is owned by an extraordinary gentleman whose name is Edi who is just an incredible giver for the LGBT community and that is a super trendy spot. The food is outrageous, he’s a great chef, and he actually has his own herb garden behind the restaurant where he grows all the herbs.  We love him, we love that restaurant and it’s certainly one of my favorites.

Where else do you enjoy traveling?  In some of the interviews I’ve had, we talk about inequality in places around the world but the world is also a very friendly place for LGBT travel.  Where do you like to go?

Absolutely, LGBT travel has evolved greatly over the last fifteen years but more specifically in the last five years.  I am obviously a fan of London as you can probably tell from my accent, Asia is very appealing to me, Hawaii is certainly one of my favorite spots to visit.  I think that generally the LGBT experience we’re looking for when we travel is to go to a destination primarily where we feel safe. Unless we’re going to some extreme countries, like Russia, I think we’re pretty safe to travel anywhere.

We have travel organizations that are representing the entire world.  I know that Out in the Vineyard is here and they are doing an African Gay Safari wine tasting event this year.  I met someone in the lobby who is with Lima travel and they are doing tours to Machu Picchu and it’s really exciting to be here and get this travel energy into one room.

We have a disposable income as a community and certainly travel is very easy nowadays and can be extremely affordable.  I feel that certainly for us, as Greater Fort Lauderdale, as a destination, we can never relax.  We always have to be pushing the envelop and marketing and brainstorming new ideas to bring new LGBT travelers to Fort Lauderdale.  I don’t believe that you should ever rest on your laurels, I think that you must always sharpen your pencil.  Competition is not necessarily destinations like Fort Lauderdale that have very large LGBT communities.  We compete with Puerto Vallarta, we’re competing with whoever has a great deal online, like Travelocity.  A lot of it is to do with price point and it’s definitely very affordable.

In society and culture there are so many more people and public figures coming out and  it sounds like that would be an increase in business to me. What’s exciting to you about the travel industry today?

I think everything is all about comfort zone.  When I travel, and I travel extensively, destinations are embracing you with warmth now.  You certainly don’t feel isolated you certainly feel welcomed.  And not welcomed because we have disposable income but generally welcomed as travelers and respected that way.

Yeah, because when we travel we want to feel warm and welcome and treated like kings and queens.

Well, queens mostly. (laughter)

Are there any pieces of advice that you’ve received in your career that helped you get to where you are today?

First of all, passion.  You’ve got to be passionate about what you are doing.  You’ve also got to go with your heart.  Most importantly you have to believe in yourself.  Whatever you embark on, I would recommend baby steps.  Always start off with baby steps and do your research and find out who are the key people that you should speak to to get guidance and help.  You’ve always got to believe in yourself.

Going way back, did you always have that vision for yourself as a leader in gay travel?  How did you discover that?

Everything happened by chance.  What I had from an extremely early age was a passion to travel.  I used to look at books on airplanes and I used to know every airplane and all the airlines that had the different planes.  So from a very early age I was interested in airplanes.  As I became older and managed to fly, I became very interested in travel and destinations and cultures and learning so much.  When you travel you learn so much about other people and I think it makes you a much better well-rounded person and certainly more interesting to be around.

It takes us out of our comfort zone too.  Because if we’re always in what we know, we’re never going to learn, we’re never going to grow.

Not only that, but we take everything for granted.  Here we are in Hello Sunnyland, Greater Fort Lauderdale, in a beautiful hotel and resort destination, but we have to be reminded that our own LGBT brothers and sisters, globally, are struggling and living in countries where being lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender in particular is a criminal offense.  I think that is something that we must always remember, that we have brothers and sisters globally that we have to help in some form.

Absolutely.  Giving back is so important.  I know that at this event, we are giving back.  There is a silent auction and people have donated things that go to the Fort Lauderdale Pride Center.

It is an extraordinary extraordinary pride center. It’s one of the largest pride centers here in the United States and the Executive Director Robert Boo and his team do an amazing job. I can’t remember how many support groups we have there but I think we have sixty or seventy different support groups, from youth all the way to the elderly, transgender, they do such an extraordinary job.  I’m very proud that this destination has such a wonderful Center.