In June of 1988, the Philadelphia gay pride parade was finally recognized and formally established with the city. Twenty-nine years later, the city remains host to a spectacular celebratory weekend of parades and festivals for gay pride on Pride Day during National Pride Month. It is the largest gay pride event in the region – roughly 25,000 people attend each year. This year was the largest event, with over 900 contingents in the parade, bringing thousands of people into the city dressed in symbolic rainbows to support the community. The event incorporates a lot of fun, attention-grabbing signage with bold colors, and over 150 vendors exhibit every year, including local gay bars and establishments, religious associations and larger companies as well, like Independence Blue Cross, REI Outdoors and Comcast.

This year, Philadelphia debuted a new LGBTQ flag featuring the traditional rainbow with an additional two stripes of black and brown, meant to represent the commitment of City Hall to the LGBTQ people of color. The new flag made this year unique compared to past festivals, and for those handing out all the swag to attendees, they had a new logo to promote.

Booths, like the one pictured below, stack their tables full of stickers, T-shirts, and other giveaways for festival and parade attendees to collect as keepsakes, or spark interest to get involved with their organization.

Equality Pennsylvania’s table setup invites people to take part in expressing what pride means to them on their signage, as well as offering stickers. (Photo: Dave Patel)

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention had a waterfront view with a table full of pamphlets, T-shirts and goodies to educate attendees on their organization’s commitments. (Photo: Dave Patel)

The Pennsylvania Youth Council is ready with branded paperwork about the work their organization does as they display their signage, flags and business cards. (Photo: Dave Patel)

Philadelphia’s tourism marketing has been effectively targeting the LGBTQ community since 2003, when Visit Philadelphia introduced a new three-year, $900,000 tourism campaign titled, “Philadelphia. Get Your History Straight and Your Nightlife Gay.” The return on investment for this marketing campaign was analyzed in 2005, showing an impact of $153 dollars in visitor spending for every dollar spent in the first run of the campaign, according to a research study commissioned and conducted by the San Francisco-based Community Marketing Inc. Since this success, Philadelphia has seen further growth: In 2010, Philadelphia ranked among the top 10 destinations visited by LBGTQ travelers; in the first year Philadelphia ran their print campaign, they didn’t make the top 20.

Arturo Varela, the media relations manager at Visit Philadelphia, shared with ASI the results of their custom survey commissioned with Community Marketing Inc. in 2011. “We found that gay and lesbian hotel visitors were spending more and staying longer than they did in 2005,” Varela said. “Spending increased 21% per party, from $726 in 2005 to $878 in 2010, while length of stay increased 24%, from 2.5 nights in 2005 to 3.1 nights in 2010. According to the same survey, gay and lesbian hotel visitors are spending 57% more per travel party than general market visitors – $878 compared to $559. Hotels are the primary beneficiary, with lodging spending up 75%, but gay and lesbian visitors also spend more than average in Philadelphia’s restaurants (68% more on food and beverage) and stores (52% more on shopping).”