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Tourism has a special value for LGBT+ people. It is an opportunity to alleviate the stress caused by discrimination and sexual prejudice in the regions from which they come. LGBT+ tourists consider several aspects when choosing a holiday destination. The LGBT+ segment is a fast-growing segment with high spending power, loyalty, and potential. Portugal has one of the most progressive laws in the world when it comes to homosexuality. However, there is still a large gap between legislation and LGBT+ tourists' perceptions of the LGBT+ friendliness of destinations. According to Jordan (2018), even in more socially liberal countries, LGBT+ people may not identify as such for fear of discrimination and may be unwilling to participate in interviews or surveys. This significantly affects the number and, more importantly, the quality of research. It is very difficult to obtain significant samples from the entire LGBT+ community. In this regard, Jordan (2018) adds that there is a lack of platforms that allow researchers to easily reach LGBT+ people, which makes it difficult for researchers to develop specific relevant studies. Most research on LGBT+ communities emerged in the 1990s and early 2000s, mainly discussing their economic power, but also sexuality, destination choice, and LGBT+ leisure space configuration (Monaco, 2022). Early research on gay consumers suggested that a gay travel market did not exist or was not viable. It concluded that sexual orientation should not constitute a market segment (Vorobjovas-Pinta & Hardy, 2016). Other studies have focused on the relationship between homosexuality, consumption, and hospitality (Avena & Rossetti, 2006), gay men's holiday travel consumption (Clift & Forrest, 1999; Hughes, 2002; Hughes & Deutsch, 2010; Pritchard et al., 2000), understanding destination choice behavior (Hoffmann et al., 2018; Neves & Brambatti, 2019) and the benefits of LGBT-inclusive destinations (Ram et al., 2019; Hahn et al., 2021). The overall objective of this study is to understand how LGBT+ visitors perceive Porto as a LGBT+ friendly destination. The study also aims to determine whether gender identity and sexual orientation influence the motivation of LGBT tourists to travel to Porto, whether LGBT tourists are valued by the destination and DMOs, and whether the perceived safety of LGBT tourists influences their intention to recommend and return to the destination.
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Universidade de Aveiro