The analysis of maintaining sustainability within the LGBTIQ wedding industry

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation is to find out what gay and lesbian look for when it comes to celebrating their civil union, especially foreigners who come to get married in Malta. Furthermore, this dissertation will analyze the current market strategies and look at new ways on how key stakeholders can promote this niche market to keep it sustainable enough in the future. The main research method used to gather data during this qualitative research were semi-structured interviews. The nine interviews conducted were mainly with same-sex couples, local and foreign, who have got married recently in Malta; a representative of a 5* hotel which is very popular as a venue in organizing these types of weddings; the Head of Marketing from the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA); a representative from the Public Registry; a representative of an international firm promoting gay marketing and gay marriages; Marketing Manager of the Malta Gay Rights Movement (MGRM), and an events planning company that caters for LGBTIQ. The researcher used purposive sampling as a sampling method. When it came to analyze the data, the researcher used a thematic approach. The results outline that the number of civil weddings between Maltese and foreign same-sex couples would increase by 10% per year over the following 3 years. Furthermore the results also show that if Malta obtains the Civil Marriage Law for same-sex couples, this will likely result in further economic gains for Maltese businesses. The results suggest also that the islands need strategic marketing campaigns to advertise Malta as an LGBTIQ destination and as a perfect location for same-sex weddings. The phenomenon of marketing tourism to the LGBTIQ community is remarkable but the researcher concluded that it needs to be researched. Lack of data is one of the limitations the researcher met, not only for reliably evaluating the size and importance of this market, but also for the destination to make strategic decisions to attract this type of tourism (Holcomb and Luongo, 1996, Hughes, 1997, Mulryan, 1995, Pritchard, 1998).