Sound tomorrow: Brian Boyd on Radiohead's deep, dark new sounds The brochure for the latest travel agency to open in Belfast is like any other, except that the well-toned couples frolicking in the sun are almost exclusively male. Men hand-in-hand in the sea, men hugging each other and men throwing snowballs on the piste.

"Gay holidaymakers have different needs to straight people," explains Martin Darwin of Gay Tours, a newly opened travel agency catering for the homosexual holiday market. "Sourcing gay-friendly accommodation and nightlife can be a nightmare without proper advice. Our company is managed by gay and gay-friendly people who understand the special needs of the gay and lesbian traveller." Companies which specialise in the pink suitcase are not a new phenomenon, but Gay Tours is the first specialist agency to serve that community in Ireland.

A quick trawl of the Internet reveals dozens of gay-friendly travel companies offering everything from walking tours of Gay New York, gay group cruises on the QE2, as well as gay and lesbian adventure holidays Down Under. A company called Toto Tours even advertises the fact that they take "friends of Dorothy somewhere over the rainbow for the adventure travel experience". Two years ago, the London Tourist Board got in on the act advertising the city to foreign homosexuals as a first-rate pick up joint. (In the Gay Tours brochure London is feted as the UK hot spot where "this year a ride in the Eye is a must!").

According to Darwin, the top gay destinations are currently the Canary Islands, Ibiza, the Greek island of Mykonos, and in Spain, Sitges, a well-established gay resort four kilometres south of Barcelona. Darwin has been in the straight travel industry for more than 20 years and as a gay man is glad to be offering the service, but he is also an astute businessman fully aware of how lucrative the gay market can be. Recent research by the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association suggests that gay people take more holidays and spend more while on holiday than straight tourists. "Because they often don't have children and there are two of them earning they often have a higher disposable income and travel more," says Darwin.

There is good reason why many gay people prefer not to ask for advice in mainstream travel agencies, and as a result can sometimes end up with a holiday that doesn't suit their requirements. Inquiring at a high-street travel shop about the best saunas in Mykonos, for example, is guaranteed to raise eyebrows and redden the cheeks of even the most broadminded operator.

"It is not very easy to go into a travel agency and ask for a gay hotel when there is a couple booking a family holiday in the next seat," says his business partner Barbara Kennedy. "Gay people need advice on accommodation and nightlife, and they want to be comfortable doing it. Our customers say it is great to have people they can talk to openly about the type of holiday they want."

Joe (22) from Belfast is a typical Gay Tours customer. "I just wouldn't go into a straight travel agent; I would just feel too embarrassed," he says. Planning a recent weekend with his boyfriend to Amsterdam was made easier by booking through a specialist gay agency than other experiences he has had. "These guys knew what they were talking about. You felt at home with them," he says of Gay Tours.

It's not just about making sure that the hotels are gay-friendly and will welcome same-sex couples who want to be openly intimate on their hols: "Even if it is a gay hotel, you may end up with a much younger or older crowd than you might want, but if you get proper advice that won't happen," he says. "Also, they tell you about all the variety of places you can go, so you don't just end up clubbing all night."

Gay Tours has been pleasantly surprised by the support for the new venture within the Irish and UK travel industry. "All the top operators have really been behind us. We were a bit concerned about their reaction, but there have been hardly any problems," says Kennedy.

That's not to say that the idea is acceptable to everyone, and there are no plans to put up a Gay Tours sign outside their premises. "The English company Man Around tried that in London and they kept getting their windows broken," says Darwin. "And if you can't do it in London, I doubt whether you could do it in Belfast or even Dublin."

For more information about Gay Tours phone 048-90871811