Top Destinations for LGBT Travel in 2016 Revealed

As LGBT tourism continues to grow, travel-planning app and website Gogobot just announced its 2016 top destinations where the specialized sector is expanding. Atlanta topped the list this year beating out Minneapolis and Boston—Dubai even cracked the top 10 briefly before being removed considering homosexuality is illegal in the region.

"Gogobot's LGBT Tribe is exploring exciting new spots that transcend traditional LGBT travel destinations like Miami, San Francisco, and Provincetown,” Krista Canfield, Gogobot’s Getaway Expert told Travel + Leisure via email. “Sadly over the past year Gogobot has had to issue disclaimers here in the U.S. about travel safety related to discrimination and anti-LGBT legislation. On the flip side, we're excited this year to be able to celebrate cities like Atlanta, Minneapolis and Tampa where there are many restaurants, nightclubs, and neighborhoods that are LGBT friendly and a number of organizations that help support and promote those businesses' growth and success.”

To come up with the top 10 list, Gogobot took a number of different factors into consideration when including reviewing data across more than 60,000 destinations in its database. Both lists are based on the number of reviews from distinct travelers visiting the destination, the number of people creating trips on the site for these destinations and real travelers recommending these spots to the LGBT Tribe in 2015.

“Our data tells us that LGBT travelers—like travelers from our other tribes—are keen to experience places first hand where the cultural norms, and even the laws, are not necessarily welcoming,” added Canfield. “These findings come at an interesting point in time since travel even within certain U.S. destinations is not LGBT friendly.”

In fact, Dubai was initially number nine on the list as the data showed that the LGBT community was increasingly interested in visiting the city. “We decided to remove Dubai from our list because homosexuality is still illegal in Dubai,” note Canfield. “As a company, we can’t in good conscience recommend Dubai as a great destination for LGBT travelers, since the punishment for homosexuality in Dubai can include prison, fines, deportation, and even the death penalty.”

Check out the full list below:

1. Atlanta
2. Minneapolis
3. Boston
4. Austin
5. Dallas
6. Washington, D.C.
7. Hong Kong
8. Toronto
9. Dubai (as explained above, Gogobot removed it from the list since homosexuality is illegal in Dubai)
10. Tampa

• By Jordi Lippe
• By Jordi Lippe-McGraw