No longer mainly for gays, Provincetown courts all

PROVINCETOWN - Waiting for a whale-watch boat with his wife and 5-year-old daughter one recent morning, Brian Grunert of Buffalo marveled at this seaside community's beautiful beaches, laid-back atmosphere - and child-friendliness. It was a far cry, Grunert said, from the wild Provincetown he had visited in the 1970s.

"I remember coming here and it was all about alternative lifestyles," he said. "Now, it's calmer. . . . The restaurants are very kid-welcoming."

Provincetown, for decades a haven for gays, is courting a broader population these days. As gays discover broader acceptance and a wider range of travel options, tourism officials are in the midst of a massive re-branding that is packaging the town at the tip of Cape Cod as a destination for families and highlighting historical and cultural attractions to appeal to travelers far and near.

They have responded in droves, and brought a 10 percent jump in room tax revenue in the first six months of the year over the same period in 2007. But amid rising fears among some gays that mainstream culture will take over, town officials are now trying to strike a precarious balance between drawing new travelers to help the economy and alienating the loyal gay clientele that helped forge the town's identity.

In recent campaigns, Provincetown has depicted itself as anything but gay. Ads in regional media outlets tout Provincetown as being "one tank away" to draw New Englanders who feel strapped by the moribund economy and high gasoline prices. With the dollar weak, the town is marketing itself in Europe as a place where vacationers can get a great value. It has advertised itself in Audubon magazine as an ecotourism destination, and has promoted its galleries and art scene in arts magazines. It has solicited cruise ship lines to make Provincetown a port of call. A Boston-based public relations firm is steering travel writers to subjects such as the Pilgrims' initial Provincetown landing (well before Plymouth), rare species of birds in the area, and the town's green museum.

"Provincetown needs every kind of visitor we can capture," said Candy Collins-Boden, executive director of the Provincetown Chamber of Commerce. "The Internet has opened up the world wide, and we're competing with everyone now."

A series of events has been launched in recent years to attract wider audiences. A jazz festival was started in 2005, a Tennessee Williams festival commenced in 2006, and a farmer's market debuted last year.

Events for gays have not been bypassed by the new emphasis, and there are some new ones, like last month's "Girl Splash," the town's first weeklong summer event for lesbians. But it is the other events that are getting buzz from the mainstream media. CNN ran a segment on whale watching last spring. Swiss Public Radio did a feature on the town last month, and The New York Times has published pieces about the burgeoning retail scene. This month, the town's dune shacks are featured in a snippet in Smithsonian magazine under the headline "Kerouac Slept Here."

"The combination of marketing efforts is really working," Collins-Bowden said.

As they seek to attract new people, tourism officials say they do not want to alienate the gay and lesbian tourists who have been faithful to the town for decades.

"Provincetown isn't turning straight. No one's trying to make it straight," said Don Knuuttila, executive director of the Provincetown Business Guild, which promotes the town to gay and lesbian tourists. "But we've always been trendsetters. There's a long history of gay men going into places, creating fabulous things, and then people coming and joining us. . . . Look at the South End."

Walking down the town's main drag on a recent weekday, the "something for everyone" message seemed to be personified. Children begged their parents for fudge outside a Commercial Street candy store while an elderly man and woman window shopped and a pair of gay men rode by on bicycles.

While town officials say that diversity and inclusion are the essence of Provincetown, not everyone is comfortable with the changes. Some gay tourists who have been coming here for years say they fear gays will be slowly sequestered in "gay-borhoods" and mainstream culture will take over much of the town. They point to similar trends in Key West, Fla., and Fire Island, N.Y., both of which were once predominantly gay but then saw influxes of straight tourists.

"It's changed drastically here and not for the good," said Alan Robertson, a loyal Provincetown visitor since 1977. "It used to be that you could walk down the street holding hands with a man and you felt safe. Now you feel gawked at."

Others say that Provincetown has long been known as a mecca of acceptance and that has to mean an acceptance of everyone, gay or straight.

"The thing about Provincetown is that it's always been inclusive - first for artists then for gays," said Sean Huck, a gay Bostonian who lives in Dorchester and has been going to Provincetown for years. "That's the whole charm of it - everyone feels like they belong here."

Tania deLuzuriaga can be reached at deluzuriaga@globe.com.