Is Tel Aviv Really The Best Gay City as Some Voters Declare?
TEL AVIV is being touted by some
as THE BEST GAY CITY.
Hmmmm, really? The BEST? I am always skeptical by these random voting contests….How many people voted? Was the voting controlled and limited to one vote per person? or could ballot stuffing have taken place? If 1000 people voted, was it a true random sampling?
We have watched Tel Aviv grow in popularity over the last 5 years. They do have a powerful PR and Marketing team, I will give them that. Their presence in the media has grown at leaps and bounds over the last 5 years. But are they the BEST? or perhaps the best up-and-coming?
In a world-wide survey hosted GayCities.com and American Airlines,
43 percent of voters cast their ballot in favor of the White City,
pushing it ahead of other proud towns including New York, Toronto and
London.
(New York City with 14 per cent, Toronto with 7 per cent, Sao Paulo with 6 per cent, Madrid and London with 5 per cent each and New Orleans and Mexico City with 4 per cent each.)
I think it all just depends on who you ask and who is surveyed! Tel Aviv is the gay mecca of the Middle East, for sure, and boasts of plenty of
designers, fashionistas, night clubs, fancy beaches, shopping malls and
outlets, DJs, women activists, gays, jews and financiers. You really
couldn’t find a more open-minded place like Tel Aviv outside of Israël. Tel Aviv, in sharp contrast to Jerusalem, is a liberal, hedonistic and secular city, where leisure life revolves around beaches, cafes and nightclubs.
Lonely Planet named it one of its top three cities in the world for
2011, describing it as “the flipside of Jerusalem, a modern Sin City on
the sea rather than an ancient Holy City on a hill” and adding: “There
are more bars than synagogues, God is a DJ and everyone’s body is a
temple.” The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is rarely on the radar.
That said,
According to Tel Aviv’s 30-year-old deputy mayor, Asaf Zamir, 16% to 17% of the city’s 403,000 population is gay. That’s pretty gay!
“It’s
a very strong community here, a comfortable arena for the gay
community. Two men walking hand in hand is a very normal thing,” he
said.
The city municipality funded a gay centre and was promoting gay tourism, he added.
They even have a gay pride parade each year – that has grown to about 100,000 local people! And also about 5,000 gay tourists, 25% MORE than 2010. So it is growing.
Amsterdam, Barcelona, London, Prague…there are so many amazing choices. Just depends on what you want? Value? Nightlife? Culture?
As for Tel Aviv – The weather is hot, the guys are hot, it’s a hot city!
Gay Tel Aviv4U – The official LGBT site
(* Before traveling to questionable foreign countries, it is best to check for travel warnings online. Trip Out Travel says, Terrorism is a reality in Tel Aviv. Tourists are advised
not to take buses and to only take registered cabs with green flags.)
