Toronto Tourism: “As Gay As It Gets”. The Canadian homo-hotspot attempts to attract us with a targeted ad campaign.

That’s the message behind a new Tourism Toronto campaign marketing the city as one of the world’s top destinations for gays and lesbians.

As any marketer knows, gays are “high-value” travellers. Worldwide, the gay travel market is a $55-billion industry.

Research has shown 98 percent of gays and lesbians have taken at least one overnight trip in the past year (compared with 72 percent of straight people). We stayed an average of 15 nights in hotels last year (compared with three nights for all U.S. travellers). And gay men spend an average of $800 on a trip (compared with $540 by non-gay travellers).

The $300,000 ad campaign will target gays travellers in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles.