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Cape Town - With yet another well attended gay event under its belt, Cape Town is optimistic that it can continue to build on its reputation as a key international "gay friendly" tour destination.
About 10 000 locals and foreigners took part in the city's annual gay costume party at the weekend, billed this year as "Africa's biggest queer tribal gathering" by Mother City Queer Project (MCQP) organisers.
The organisers expressed their satisfaction that gay events in the city were an attraction not only for local gays, but for international visitors, many of whom had bought package deals designed for gay visitors.
Last year, the MCQP raked in around R50m (about $8.3m) for local tourism with the event and spinoffs from activities in the shadow of Cape Town's Table Mountain.
More service providers in Cape Town appear to be following on the heels of tour companies that have set out to lure gay travellers to South Africa in recent years.
Local plastic surgeons, estate agents, jewellers, information technology and law firms are trying to lure gay business and particularly those who spend "pink" foreign currency.
"People come in specifically for the Cape Town summer. This time of the year, one in five people at a gay party will be foreign," said Russel Southey of Cape Town Pride.
Cape Town has come to offer an "alternative to the traditional European gay tour destinations" of Ibiza in Spain or the south of France, he believes.
"There are two types of gay tours. There's the gay tour operator who gets people to Cape Town having targeted the gay community in the United Kingdom or Amsterdam.
Then there's the tour operator who offers a deal that includes a specific gay event - not the usual sites in Cape Town," he said.
All year-round gay events are not in short supply in Cape Town where a large number of clubs, bars, cafes, restaurants, bathhouses and beaches are listed as gay facilities.
The weekend's event marked a celebration of summer in the city and the rising feeling of freedom that 10 years of democracy has brought to the country's gay community.
In October, the city held its 7th annual "Sex and Kultuur" festival, a showcase of gay art, erotica and entertainment.
In other parts of the country, large crowds of gays also bring out feather boas for events such as Johannesburg's annual Gay Pride March or the Pink Loerie Mardi Gras in the southern town of Knysna.
Like the MCQP costume party, Cape Town Pride 2005 that takes place over ten days in February and includes a parade, a golf festival and the world's first, gay horseracing day at the city's Kenilworth Racecourse, is a major event on the gay calendar.
The MCQP event coincided this week with the publication of Cape Town's "Pink Map" - a guide for gays to the city and its surrounding areas. Most of the sites listed are interspersed with the city's heterosexual entertainment venues.
- dpa