Buenos Aires, Argentina – This capital city, ever more friendly and welcoming to affluent globe-trotting gays, has seen the laying of the cornerstone of the first five-star hotel designed to attract homosexual guests.
Construction on the Axel Buenos Aires hotel began Thursday in the historic – and traditionally somewhat bohemian – downtown neighborhood of San Telmo.
The hotel, to be inaugurated in April 2007, will be the Axel chain’s second establishment; the other one is located in Barcelona and was rated by readers of Out Traveler magazine as the “world’s best gay hotel in 2005.”
During a ceremony celebrated at the site where the building will be constructed, its owner, Spaniard Juan Julia, told reporters that the idea was to create a “space of respect and tolerance,” values symbolized by the rainbow-colored homosexual-pride flag that – along with the Argentine and Spanish banners – was buried amid the hotel’s foundations.
Despite its target clientele, the hotel is being billed as “hetero-friendly.” As Julia put it, it will be a “free and tolerant (space) where all will be equally welcome irrespective of their sexual orientation; that is, a space built with the gay public in mind but open to everyone.”
The property will contain 48 rooms, a restaurant, a conference hall, a “spa,” a garden and pool, said Julia, who noted that there was nothing to distinguish it from a conventional hotel in terms of service, “only in its atmosphere.”
“It doesn’t have any special facility. We’re a hotel. We can’t lose sight of that; there won’t be ‘drag queens’ at the reception desk, there will be receptionists, just as there will be waiters at the bar and chefs in the kitchen. The difference is that homosexuals will feel comfortable and at ease and that is what makes us special,” he said.
The idea of building the hotel in Buenos Aires emerged after Julia, himself a homosexual, made a visit to the Argentine capital. The hotelier said he was fascinated by the city’s energy and its people and discovered “a tolerance and an easy acceptance of the gay community, like in Europe, as well as a broad selection of places and activities geared to homosexuals.”
In the business owner’s opinion, there is no “social risk” in opening this hotel in Argentina because “the society is perfectly prepared for having an establishment of this type.”
“There will always be sectors of society that don’t like this undertaking, even though it will be a project that enriches the city, that will create jobs and revitalize an area rather than (being a speculative venture),” he said.
Julia said all he asks of those who oppose the project is for their respect, “in the same way that the gay community is respectful of others.”
While Julia acknowledged that “investing in Argentina is risky given the nation’s economic cycles,” he said the financial situation “is favorable at the moment and good profits can be made,” given the relative cheapness of goods and services here compared with Europe.
There are currently more than 200 establishments designed for a homosexual clientele in Buenos Aires, including restaurants, bars, discotheques, shops, spa centers, tango clubs and even a radio station, making it one of the world’s most gay- and lesbian-friendly capitals.
For this reason, it is hardly surprising that, according to the local press, close to 20 percent of all domestic and foreign visitors to Buenos Aires are homosexual.
Recently, homosexual tourists were also given another reason to book a trip to the Argentine capital, as Buenos Aires was selected as host city for the Gay World Cup, which will be played in 2007.
