The rainbow is already a major tourism brand for Hawaii, but industry experts say connecting with the LGBT community could put a pot of gold at the end of it.

Hawaii’s visitor industry has long pegged LGBT travelers as a niche market. However, new data shows that Hawaii should be pursuing it as a core market, said Thomas Roth, founder of San Francisco-based Community Marketing &Insights, or CMI, whose company has been hired by the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority to conduct the agency’s first market intelligence survey of Hawaii’s LGBT visitors.

“All destinations in the U.S. and increasingly around the world are competing and Hawaii hasn’t been there yet,” Roth said. “It’s not about saying Hawaii wants to raise the flag and say I’m LGBT friendly now. It’s really a business decision,” said Roth, who previewed a sample of the HTA’s soon-to-be-released LGBT report at the Hawaii Tourism Conference on Tuesday.

The good news is Hawaii can still turn it around. Investment and authenticity has paid off for other destinations. Also, positive results were gleaned from an August online survey of 1,121 LGBT travelers who were most likely to visit Hawaii based on age, income and long-haul travel patterns.

“Ten to 15 years ago, Las Vegas never showed up as a top 10 LGBT destination. Now, it’s consistently in the top five,” said Jim McMichael, Las Vegas Convention &Visitor Authority specialty markets manager. “Our hotels have gotten very aggressive. It’s important as a destination to make sure that we are welcoming to everyone.”

Roth said Philadelphia pushed into the LGBT travel community in 2004 with a baseline study similar to the one HTA is pursuing. A campaign, “Get your history straight and your nightlife gay,” went gangbusters.

“For every $1 Philadelphia invested, they got back $153,” he said. “The general market spent $559 per trip, but the LGBT market spent $878 and those that noticed the ad campaign spent $1,013. We vote with our wallets.”

Kelly Sanders, area managing director for Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, agreed that the LGBT market holds great potential for Hawaii.

“It’s exciting that HTA actually commissioned a study to better understand where to spend tourism marketing dollars,” Sanders said. “People don’t always understand the value in the way that they understand the value of marketing to China and Japan. I think we should be embracing any opportunity we can to drive more travelers to come to Hawaii.

A profile of LGBT visitors who have traveled to Hawaii in the past five years shows that the West Coast is Hawaii’s top feeder market for LGBT travelers, according to Roth. However, there’s also potential from other U.S. states with major LGBT populations, including Texas, Illinois, Georgia, Florida and New York. The profile sets Hawaii’s target age for LGBT visitors most likely to travel to Hawaii at ages 40 to 64. It also shows that lesbians are less likely to visit Hawaii than gay men, who are typically higher earning.

Seventy-five percent of LGBT travelers who visited Hawaii in the past five years had partners, according to CMI data. Their typical household income was over $100,000 and 6 percent of them had children under 18 living at home. Oahu garnered 49 percent of the LGBT visitor traffic followed by Maui at 42 percent, Hawaii island at 37 percent, Kauai at 26 percent, Lanai at 3 percent and Molokai at 2 percent. The typical trip was seven days.

As many as 37 percent of LGBT travelers surveyed from California, Oregon and Washington said they had visited Hawaii in the past three years and another 49 percent said they hoped to visit in the next two years.

LGBT travelers from the Pacific states were Hawaii’s biggest fans with 45 percent of them saying that they planned to visit the islands in the next two years as compared to 27 percent of the entire LGBT survey population and 19 percent of those who resided in Midwest and Eastern states. As much as 32 percent of the Gen X LGBT travelers surveyed said they were planning trips in the next two years versus 26 percent boomers, and 23 percent millennials.