Broward County's tourism bureau has been marketing to the LGBT community since 1996, but results of a survey released Monday show extra effort is needed to attract more transgender travelers.

In August, some 700 members of the transgender community across 48 states participated in the online survey conducted by Community Marketing & Insights, a San Francisco-based specialty marketing and research firm.

Only 10 percent of participants perceived Fort Lauderdale to be very trans-friendly, the study revealed.

Nearly half (48 percent) of respondents polled perceived Fort Lauderdale as not being transgender-friendly, while 43 percent said it was somewhat trans-friendly, according to the study commissioned by the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau.

"We know a lot about gay and lesbian travelers, but little if anything has been known about the transgender traveler, until now," said Richard Gray, the bureau's managing director of the LGBT market. "Now is the time for the Greater Fort Lauderdale CVB to emphasize the importance of the T in LGBT. The forgotten T, I'm saddened to say."

Despite the less-than-flattering survey results, Fort Lauderdale ranked No. 9 among the top 10 travel destinations for transgender travelers, But officials say the survey's findings is the ammunition they need to boost its ranking. San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Key West were the top five.

In 2013, the county welcomed 1.3 million LGBT visitors who spent about $1.5 billion in the destination, but the transgender portion of that figure is very small.

The tourism bureau approached CMI about a year ago to help develop and conduct its first-ever transgender travel survey study, Gray said.

Among the goals was to better understand what motivates transgender people to travel and select a destination, and also discern whether special training is needed for local hotels and the CVB to better accommodate them, he said.

Survey findings revealed that transgender people tend to be budget-oriented, cultural and urban-core travelers, although some also identified themselves as warm weather and beach travelers.

Of note, roughly 80 percent of respondents said a destination's reputation as being "safe" was the most important motivating factor when selecting a place to visit.

Other key survey findings show a high percentage (62 percent) of transgender travelers tend to travel alone at least sometimes, while 49 percent preferred to travel with a partner or spouse. The totals vary because "check all that apply" was an option on the survey question.

"As a CVB, we want to appropriately communicate with transgender travelers," he said.

These key findings and others were released to an audience of hoteliers and hospitality partners at the Riverside Hotel who came out to learn more about transgender travelers and how best to cater to them.

The study's release comes a little more than a year before Broward hosts the Southern Comfort Transgender Conference, the largest and longest-running transgender conference in the country.

Southern Comfort recently partnered with the tourism bureau to bring its annual conference to town for three years from 2015 through 2017. The 25th transgender conference will run Sept. 28-Oct. 3 at the Bonaventure Resort & Spa in Weston, the host hotel for the three years.

"We're beyond thrilled to be selected as the official host facility and are excited to build this partnership," said Amy Hyde, the resort's senior sales manager.

The 500-room hotel's size and meeting facilities were a big draw, said Alexis Dee, president of Southern Comfort's board of directors.

"We'll take over the entire hotel and we're looking already like we will need a property for overflows," Dee told attendees Monday, noting that the number of speakers and vendors is expected to double in size in 2015.

With Florida still among U.S. states not allowing gay marriage, it's not surprising that survey respondents didn't perceive it as being friendly to the lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender community.

Although survey results show there's more work to be done in Florida, events like Southern Comfort are a "great step forward in changing that perception," said Gina Duncan, transgender inclusion director for Equality Florida, the state's largest LGBT advocacy organization.

Of the conference, Duncan added: "I think it will generate a lot more dialogue and awareness of what it means to be transgender."

asatchell@tribpub.com, 954-356-4209 or Twitter@TheSatchreport.