Excerpts from “Philly refines its pitch to gay tourists” By Rubina Madan, Associated Press – 7/15/07 PHILADELPHIA (AP) – When the city rolled out a national ad campaign aimed at gay tourists four years ago, some of the commercials featured same-sex couples in Colonial costumes. … Since then, the city has become more sophisticated in its effort to attract part of the annual $55 billion gay tourism market, targeting subgroups within the gay and lesbian community. … Philadelphia has been focusing recent marketing efforts on lesbians, who are less likely to have visited the city than gay men… … The city is also reaching out to gay athletes by meeting with gay softball, bowling and soccer leagues to accommodate their competitions. And this week, Philadelphia is hosting the International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. … [N]ow more than 75 cities around the world have gay tourism campaigns, as do travel companies like Orbitz, Travelocity, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines. < end of excerpts from article > Read the entire news article here: http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070715/NEWS01/70715006/1001/rss