Mexico City woos same-sex honeymooners

CNN reports: As more governments approve same-sex marriage laws, officials in Mexico City are hoping to attract a growing part of the tourism market: gay honeymoons.

The first couple to wed under Argentina's recent law allowing same-sex marriages nationwide arrives in Mexico this week on an all-expenses-paid trip -- part of a new push by the government in Mexico City to woo gay travelers.

"We hope that many same-sex couples who get married around the world spend their honeymoons here," says Alejandro Rojas, the city's tourism secretary.

In July, the city opened an office aimed at catering to gay tourists that officials describe as the first of its kind in Latin America.

"We are a very tolerant, liberal, avant-garde city," Rojas says.

Officials inaugurated the new office by cutting a rainbow-colored ribbon. Rojas said the office's goal is to make Mexico City the No. 1 gay-friendly destination in Latin America.

"Mexico has a tradition of being a rather macho culture... This is a sign of a very important social change," says Argentinean architect Jose Luis David Navarro, who will be spending part of his honeymoon in Mexico City this week.

For years, it was rare to see gay rights issues gaining traction in Mexico and other Latin American countries. Not anymore, according to Javier Corrales, a professor of political science at Amherst College in Massachusetts.

"Latin America currently has some of the most gay-friendly cities in the developing world," says Corrales, who ranks cities' gay-friendliness in a new book he co-edited, The Politics of Sexuality in Latin America.

In addition to training local hotels and restaurants on how to be sensitive to gay clientele, officials say they hope to create maps of the city highlighting attractions for gay tourists and possibly host an international gay tourism conference.

The annual economic impact of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender travelers is about $63 billion in the U.S. alone, according to Community Marketing, Inc. of San Francisco, California. On the global scale, Rojas says, that number is even greater.

"Around the world, it is a very important market," Rojas says.