When did gay tourism begin? Was it in 1895, when the trial of Oscar Wilde sent society homosexuals scrambling en masse to the Continent to escape a similar fate? Or were the ancient Spartan warrior-lovers the first great gaggle of gays to hit foreign climes for one hell of a party? The Grand Tour of Europe must surely have held sensual as well as cultural delights for a 'sensitive' young man of the eighteenth century. And Morocco had its fair share of theatrical ex-pats long before Joe Orton so elegantly chronicled his little escapades in Marrakech. San Francisco first became a Boystown (and consequently a Gay Mecca) after the Second World War, when discharged sailors discovered they could have far more fun sticking together than they would back with their folks in Nowheresville, Illinois. The package tour found the clones of the Seventies charting all the major trade routes that remain well trampled to this day. They pitched camp, founding colonies that would become the staple destination of gay tourism for three decades and counting.

In the US, affluent New York 'A- gays' have decamped each summer to Fire Island. There they have created an alternative homosexual high society where social status permeates the rituals and traditions that have become as unchanging as anything the British class system has created.

Europe's gay hot-spots have always been rather more egalitarian, based around hedonism rather than social standing. The sun, sex and sangria of Sitges provide an opportunity for men whose everyday lives are constrained by heterosexual conventions to let rip in an atmosphere of mutual abandon. As our heterosexual counterparts discovered the delights of Torremelinos and Majorca, so gay men have made their annual pilgrimages to Sitges, Mykonos, Gran Canaria, etc., to do much the same, revelling in the sort of atmosphere epitomised by the package tours of Club 18-30.

Gay travel companies have been among the most successful of gay businesses, building primarily on a portfolio of conventional package tours to friendly resorts in Europe and North America. The most important qualification for becoming a gay resort was the perceived liberalism of the locals. Pretty soon, an area builds up an infrastructure of gay bars, clubs and hotels and the colonisation is complete.

For the gay holiday-makers of the last few decades, there is safety in numbers. For most, a gay lifestyle was something they were only able to experience on occasion, be it once a week, once a month or even once a year. No surprise then, that they should wish to holiday almost exclusively among other gay men, away from the bigotry and petty prejudices of everyday life. And no surprise that they should make the most of a scene that they have little access to for 50 weeks in a year.

But Joe and Joel Average have started to become rather more adventurous of late. The last few years have seen a surge in confidence amongst the gay community, matched by a greater recognition and acceptance from the wider population. As we recognise the diversity of our community, more highly specialised gay travel operators have sprung up to cater for every conceivable destination and activity.

For the physically active traveller, there are adventure holidays aplenty, from canyoneering and mountain biking in the wilds of Utah to discovering Aboriginal culture in the Australian Outback, white-water rafting, scuba diving, whale watching, mountaineering, skiing, snowboarding, trekking through the Amazon - the sky's the limit. Or rather it isn't; there are hang-gliding and ballooning trips. And you can be sure that when the first travel agents start sending people into space, one of them will be a gay operator.

More sedentary pursuits include painting, cookery, art history and music. Self- development on a Greek island or group bonding on a Turkish yacht, or perhaps a spa getaway in Iceland: the choice seems limitless. All these holidays are marketed directly to gay men and lesbians, by gay or gay friendly companies. Straight friends may come along, but only in the company of a responsible homosexual.

The development of the gay travel market can be ascribed directly to the concept of the Pink Pound. This developed in the late Eighties, with the realisation that because of their lack of dependants gay people have a greater disposable income than their straight counterparts. This, combined with the fact that in gay couples both are likely to be in full-time work, has made the gay sector a dream consumer group for marketeers of all persuasions.

Research in the US has since suggested that gay men are four times more likely to hold a current passport than heterosexual men, and have a greater propensity for travel. In Britain, a survey of Gay Times readers found that 76 per cent take holidays abroad at least once a year and that 34 per cent travel at least twice a year.

How representative these figures are of the gay population as a whole is open to debate, but the response to such data has been phenomenal. Major international travel companies have suddenly become interested in courting this previously shunned group.

And this new-found interest is not confined to companies. Cities, states and even countries are bending over backwards to attract and accommodate the gay visitor. Sydney's Mardi Gras brings millions of dollars into the city in tourist-generated revenue, a fact that the city is eager to exploit and expand on. Florida's Tourist Board had long targeted the gay visitor, as has Amsterdam. Hawaii, since its change in legislation, now promotes itself as the gay wedding capital. Politics are not entirely market-driven, however. A government- produced leaflet aimed at attracting gay visitors to Spain was withdrawn after a change of administration.

Gay travel trade shows now take place regularly in London and throughout the US, and workshops and seminars on selling to the gay consumer are legion. While specialised companies thrive, the traditional gay holiday firms have grown substantially, and are combing the globe to find new gay destinations. Prague has joined Amsterdam as an ideal location for a weekend break, while Mexico is being touted as the next big thing.

Exclusively gay resorts and developments are being created, where people can stay and never see a heterosexual during their entire visit. Man Friday is one such location, encompassing ten acres of exquisitely manicured lawns, gardens and rainforest along Fiji's Coral Coast, where guests stay in 'traditional' thatched huts.

The Desert Tropics Inn in Las Vegas, a city not noted for its tolerance, is an all-male, clothing optional complex to which the management aims to add an all-gay casino in the near future. Even Disney got in on the act, with the Annual Gay Day at Walt's Magic Kingdom.

Of course, all this activity needs media outlets to cover it. The numerous gay travel guides on the market have now been joined by an American monthly magazine called Our World, a travel journal for lesbians and gays, focusing on a different part of the world in every issue.

The electronic media have become extremely important to all this. The internet has played a major role in the development of the more specialised companies, giving gay people the world over immediate access to the smallest operators.

This has made it particularly easy to find the gay holiday of your choice. IGTA, the International Gay Travel Association, is the network of the travel industry businesses and of professionals involved in the gay travel market. From a group of 25 when it formed in 1983, it has grown into an organisation with over 1,200 members, and is the ideal starting point in the search for the perfect holiday.

Another excellent site is www.ferrariguides.com, created by the publishers of the Ferrari Guides. Here you can look up holidays by destination, activity, operator or date of travel. If you can't find something that appeals here, perhaps you're better off staying at home.

The gay community has come a long way in the last few decades, and increasingly that journey is becoming measurable in air miles. Please note that this article concentrates exclusively on gay men, as the lesbian market is a rather different though equally vibrant area. It is too soon to tell whether the market can sustain such levels of exploitation, and consequently whether the intervention of the mainstream companies will continue. Current opinion is optimistic but corporate attention can be fickle, if companies don't make their quotas. In the meantime, the gay traveller can bask in all the attention, and rest assured in the knowledge that he faces a choice that - for the first time - is second to none.