Hotel owners and other business in Fort Lauderdale that court gay travelers are concerned about the effect Mayor Jim Naugle's recent statements about gay people could have should the controversy be picked up by national news outlets.
The Miami Herald
Remarks by Naugle at a news conference yesterday linking the city's AIDS rate with its attraction to gay tourists only served to fuel the anger of hundreds of protestors at a demonstration later in the day:
“Answering a question at Tuesday's press conference, Naugle questioned why Broward's health department was working to reduce the county's high AIDS rate while the Visitors Bureau tried to attract more gay vacationers. Naugle sits on the Tourist Development Council, which supervises the Visitors Bureau. In a telephone interview Tuesday, he questioned whether Broward's success with gay vacationers might discourage others from visiting. ‘It could be that if we had a different marketing strategy, we might have 12 million people rather than 10 million people because we [would] have more families,' he said. ‘Who really knows the outcomes of decisions like that?'”
Hotels hope Naugle doesn't deter gay tourism [miami herald]
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