In California, Celebrating Gay Marriage With Travel Deals

Within hours of the decisions that struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act and effectively overturned Proposition 8, which in 2008 banned same-sex marriages in California, the JW Marriott San Francisco Union Square hotel on Wednesday began offering its “Love is Love is Love” package, including a three-course dinner, Champagne and robes for two in the price of one night’s stay, starting at $324.

That same day, Orbitz began a photo contest in which participants could win flights to destinations that recognize same-sex marriage, including New York City, Seattle, Buenos Aires and Paris.

And so began the flurry of travel promotions from all corners designed to appeal to gay couples, particularly those traveling to California, a perennial destination-wedding state that may see the same sort of bump in marriage tourism that New York and Rhode Island experienced after their state legislatures legalized same-sex marriage.

In the year following New York State’s legalization of same-sex marriage in 2011, New York City saw $259 million in spending and $16 million in city revenue from same-sex couples’ weddings, according to a 2012 survey by NYC Company, the city’s marketing and tourism bureau, and the city clerk’s office.

California, which is already issuing marriage licenses to gay couples, may see a similar windfall. The Williams Institute at the law school of the University of California, Los Angeles, estimates that over the next three years, 37,000 California same-sex couples are likely to marry and that the state economy will gain approximately $492 million in new business revenue from same-sex couples’ weddings. That estimate doesn’t account for the gay couples outside California who may travel to the state to wed. The only other state on the West Coast that allows same-sex marriage is Washington, and the next closest of the 13 states that do are Minnesota and Iowa.

Neal Broverman, editor in chief of Out Traveler magazine, said that California has a bounty of wedding destinations to choose from. On the high end are hotels like the Langham Huntington in Pasadena, the US Grant Hotel in San Diego and Montage Laguna Beach, on a bluff overlooking the Pacific. More modest but equally beautiful wedding locations, he said, include Golden Gate Park in San Francisco or Griffith Park in Los Angeles.

Mr. Broverman added that he thinks the Supreme Court decision effectively legalizing same-sex marriage in California will also attract gay travelers who want to spend money in a state where their rights are recognized, regardless of their marital intentions.

“The LGBT community is very cognizant of whether a place is friendly to them, in a legal and a cultural way,” he said. In a 2011 survey conducted by Community Marketing Inc., a research firm specializing in the gay travel market, 65 percent of gay respondents indicated that a destination’s reputation of being welcoming to their community was a motivator in choosing it; 16 percent of gay men and 28 percent of lesbians said a destination’s same-sex marriage laws influenced their decision in choosing a destination.

One look at the wedding guide that the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board updated on June 28, and it’s clear that gay couples certainly have their pick of destinations in California this summer.