Palm Springs Makes Bid for Gays’ Dollars : Tourism: Some business people are advertising for gay and lesbian clients as resort city battles a sluggish economy.

PALM SPRINGS —  Travelers to this desert resort in search of hotel accommodations can flip through the city’s official Visitors Guide and notice the enticing ad on Page 29 for El Mirasol Villas.

“Remember when patrons were valued and treated like royalty?” the ad teases. It talks of two pools, a spa, a library and tropical grounds.

The ad includes the various symbols detailing which amenities and features are offered: kitchenettes, suites, television, in-room phones--and the Greek letter lambda, meaning that the El Mirasol Villas caters to a gay clientele.

Indeed, 14 hotels advertising in the city’s Visitors Guide are listed as catering to gays.

For travelers interested more specifically in gay and lesbian activities, they can ask for a copy of the Gay Guide to Palm Springs, also available at the two visitors centers in town.

“Palm Springs: the Premier Gay Resort of the United States,” a feature article proclaims. “In Palm Springs, gay people--both visitors and the large local contingent--lead a relaxed life knowing they are accepted and welcomed, not merely tolerated. . . . The gay lifestyle is seen as just another element that contributes to the cosmopolitan, sophisticated atmosphere of this world-class resort.”

The guidebook’s Gay Community Calendar lists, among other upcoming events, the March 22-28 Nabisco Dinah Shore Golf Tournament, which has grown over the years as a major draw for lesbians who party at half a dozen or so major dances and balls on the Saturday night of the big golf weekend.

And for gays and lesbians on the East Coast who tire of visiting such established gay vacation destinations as Key West, Fla., and Provincetown on Cape Cod, a toll-free number publicized by the Palm Springs Gay Tourism Council connects them to a city office.

A travel blurb appeared in the New York Times recently promoting the 800 number to Palm Springs. It generated nearly 1,000 requests for the Gay Guide.

Is Palm Springs coming out of the closet? Hardly. This community has long been a resort for gays and lesbians, dating back to the 1930s when Hollywood came here to kick back and let its hair down in the dry desert heat.

But as the city’s tourism industry continues to battle a sluggish economy, the business people now recognize what some marketing studies have shown for some time: Gay and lesbian couples are among the most well-heeled--especially because many have dual incomes and no children.

It is time to tap that market in a serious way, Palm Springs has decided.

“The attitude of the country has changed today, with some notable exceptions like Colorado,” said Mayor Lloyd Maryanov. “Gays are people, and we’re in the market to provide a resort for people, period.”

But professionals in the tourism trade note that Palm Springs appears unique in promoting itself to gays. Of course, San Francisco has long been popular among gays and lesbians, and its Convention & Visitors Bureau--a public, nonprofit organization funded partly by proceeds from the city’s hotel bed tax--advertises regularly in major gay publications.

But even San Francisco--perhaps because it does not feel it needs to--does not publish a gay guide to supplement its San Francisco Book.

For Palm Springs to step out so aggressively to capture the gay travel market is grabbing attention.

“I don’t know of any mainstream guidebooks that identify gay resorts in their communities,” said Peter Callahan, an associate editor of the San Francisco-based Travel Age West trade publication. Just two years ago, he wrote an article questioning why destination resorts do not more aggressively market themselves to capture the gay dollar.

The independent Palm Springs Gay Tourism Council has existed for several years, and spends about $300,000 annually from its members’ dues to pay for advertising in various gay newspapers and magazines. There are about 30 hotels, motels and resorts in Palm Springs that specifically cater to gays and lesbians, representing about 300 of the city’s 6,500 hotel rooms.

Last fall, the Gay Tourism Council approached City Hall for promotional help.

Real estate broker John Rowe, a gay business leader, knocked on City Hall’s door, and said the idea was discussed “in a very businesslike, forthright manner. They’re aware of the occupancy tax our people pay.”

The city’s openly gay hotels generated nearly $300,000 in bed taxes last year. That does not include the revenue created by gay business at mainstream hotels.

The city is legally constrained from directly helping any one special-interest group with funds generated by hotels citywide.

However, the gay hoteliers were allowed to reprint the city’s regular visitors guide and add an insert. The city agreed to field inquiries and distribute the Gay Guide to people asking for it. In addition, gay hotels’ advertisements were placed in the regular visitors guidebook, too.

Besides the normal Chamber of Commerce spiel about weather, golf, tennis and fine dining, the Gay Guide insert touted the “tremendous selection of bars, clubs and discos in Palm Springs and the immediate area” offering everything from country-Western dancing to wrestling in whipped cream.

Today, about 25% of all requests for visitor guidebooks are for the Gay Guide, said Murrell Foster, the city’s tourism director.

“They’ve done a great job, far beyond my expectations,” he said of the Gay Tourism Council promotion efforts. And the city is happy to have the added income, he said. “Money is money, and this town has always been fairly open to this kind of thing.”

Having gay hotels advertise in the regular guidebook has other benefits besides promotional value.

Heterosexuals can now avoid unwittingly seeking a room at a gay hotel, said Don Ettinger, owner of El Mirasol Villas. “I used to get a lot of calls that would start: ‘My wife and I. . . .’ Now they can see (by the visitors guide) that we’re gay,” Ettinger said.

Jim Shaw is president of the Palm Springs Tourism Bureau, which is run within City Hall, and is owner of the mainstream Mira Loma Hotel.

He said there were some misgivings when word circulated among hoteliers that the Gay Guide was at the printer’s.

“There was a concern that people would get the wrong idea--that this was a gay bastion, a gay mecca,” said Shaw, who is gay.

Still, even some mainstream hotels are reaching out.

The Marquis, a high-end hotel in downtown Palm Springs, is host to the gay Boys Club of L.A. for its annual Easter weekend “White Party,” a spring break celebration, and fills its 260 rooms with gay men. An estimated 2,500 gay men are expected to attend this year’s weekend-long events--and overflow bookings are referred to other mainstream hotels.

Holding the convention, said Marquis General Manager Charles Roulet, is good business, even though it generates “a few calls from people asking me if I’m a gay hotel.”

Despite the flak, he said he appreciates the revenue--and the return business from gays. “Palm Springs is a hide-out for the independent and wealthy, and the largest group among them is gay,” he said.

Even the Courtyard by Marriott has advertised in one of Palm Springs’ two local gay publications.

“The economy is forcing us to look at new markets,” said sales and marketing director Jamie Pagel. “It’s forcing the local hotels to loosen up a little bit.”