Fourth International Conference on Tourism and Leisure Studies

Abstract

India has sent powerful signal to world after supreme court decision decriminalizing LGBT.Author in this paper has shared findings of exploratory research on opportunities and challenges if India wants to capitalize on this decision. Sample size chosen was 40 and comprised of ten members each of lesbian, gay, transgender and bi-sexual community. All respondents were from central India and were from middle or higher middle class. Focus group interview method was used and each group i.e. lesbian, gay) was separately interviewed. Issues such as preferred destinations, duration of stay, season, type of accommodation, budget constraints if any, other concerns shown were covered. Except for group of transgenders, all other groups were enthusiastic about going out and enjoy the newly found freedom. Trans-genders preferred Stay-cation due to issue of harassment and were not comfortable going out of safety zone. Bisexual preferred commonly popular destinations but gay and lesbians chose to go to isolated places where their privacy was not an issue. Those from Information technology sector and had exposure to western world wanted to go to bay area. All groups opted for five days package and decided to choose accommodation based on reviews. Safety was the biggest concern for all respondents and transgenders were vocal on this issue. Ten respondents with no budget constraints wished to opt for luxury cruise. None of them were ready to believe in advertisements and decided to believe reviews from own community. Sample size was forty and findings from study can not be extrapolated Pan India.