Holiday motivations: conversations with lesbians in Mexico

Abstract

Studies from Western countries suggest that sexuality plays a quite important role in holidays by homosexuals. This small-scale study is an exploratory research of the holiday motivations of lesbians in a context different from those previously studied. Based on qualitative interviews, this study suggests that sexuality is not as important for determining lesbians’ holiday experiences as has been commonly argued. In this study, other aspects, particularly cultural experiences, seem to dominate in their holiday motivations. This study does not discard the importance of sexuality in lesbian holiday motivations; however, it does postulate that other factors are as important as sexuality in shaping the holiday experiences of lesbians, at least in a developing-world context.

Keywords:

• Holiday motivations
• lesbian tourism
• sexuality
• qualitative research
• Mexico

Notes

1. The majority of the women interviewed self-defined as ‘gay’. The term lesbiana (lesbian in Spanish), as some informants claimed, ‘is a derogative word’. However, the term lesbian is adopted in this paper as it is the term most widely used in the academic literature.