In many ways, selling luxury travel is the same regardless of who the client is: each client will have their preferences about where they want to go, what they want to experience and what type of hotel or cruise they want to book. With that information, it’s up to the travel advisor to create an itinerary suited perfectly for the client. However, it’s important to be aware of certain aspects, such as traveler safety and hotel communications, when booking for LGBTQ+ clients.
To gain insight into selling travel to this niche, we recently spoke with Adam Martindale, a luxury travel advisor with Cruise Planners—as, if you don't even know what to be concerned about, you can't help your clients in that regard. You need to be proactive.
Good to know: Earlier this summer, Martindale launched the MeetMeOnBoard cruise app for LGBTQ+ travelers. Through this, travelers can learn more about cruise brands committed to fostering inclusive environments, receive updates on trending cruise information that will help them make informed decisions about their travel plans, and discover fellow LGBTQ+ companions aboard their cruise.
Here’s what we learned:
It’s About the Simple Things
The first step, Martindale says, is to be aware of the pronouns and titles you use. When you receive an email or a phone call from a new client, you don’t know anything about them yet. If they say they are looking to book a trip with their partner, don’t automatically assume it’s a “mister” or “missus” based on who’s speaking. While you would need the other traveler’s information eventually, ask up front, “Can you tell me the name of the other person that’s traveling with you?”
It seems obvious enough, but it’s worth repeating.
It’s also important to communicate the needs of your clients to the hotel, for instance. Martindale relayed a story about two travelers—both men—who checked into a hotel and received two queen beds instead of a single king bed. Another hotel recently sent him an email referring to two of his clients as mister and missus and he had to correct them so they knew it was “it’s two misters. He then told the front desk, “Can you make sure you don't make that mistake when they check in or when you write the card to say ‘Welcome to the hotel.”
By catching any of these mishaps beforehand, it will make the travelers feel much more at ease on their trip, knowing that their travel advisor has their back.
Safety Abroad
Safety abroad is a major concern for just about every traveler—but some, like those within the LGBTQ+ community, have a few other things to be concerned about. Only 37 countries worldwide recognize same-sex marriage, with some level of illegality of same-sex sexual activity still in place in nearly 70 countries. Among these will limitations on same-sex couples are popular tourist destinations like Egypt, Jamaica, Kenya, the Maldives, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Tanzania, the United Arab Emirates, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
From Martindale’s point of view, however, “In most of the major cities around the world now, there's no issues, really.” He adds that destinations like Mykonos, Greece; Sitges, Spain; and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico “are great LGBT destinations.”
In countries where there are regulations regarding people who identify within the LGBTQ+ community, Martindale says it’s important “to make sure they respect the cultures before they go there.” If a couple is OK not being able to kiss in public in a certain destination—Istanbul, for instance—then Martindale’s OK sending them there; if the clients take issue with it, he also understands. Martindale lets the clients take the lead in this regard. “Most people are smart like, ‘Yeah, well, we're a gay couple. We're not going to make a big thing out of it while we're there. We'll enjoy the destination and respect the culture that we're visiting,’” he adds.
There are some places, like Egypt, where Martindale will not send clients on their own. That said, he uses High End Journeys, “a really great LGBT tour operator” for all his Egypt bookings.
When it comes to cruises, LGBTQ+ travelers will be fine on any line, says Martindale. “There are some that are known to be more welcoming to more gay and lesbian travelers, like Celebrity [and] Virgin … Virgin Voyages is a lot of fun. I mean, they have a drag queen on board.” He also notes that “We have a lot of wealthier clients that do more high-end cruise lines, so Seaborn, Silversea Regent, Oceania—those are very accommodating to gay and lesbian couples.”
LGBTQ+ Is Not Just One Thing
In many instances—this story included—the entirety of “LGBTQ+” is lumped into one large, catch-all category. That, however, is far from the case. Within each letter of the acronym is an entire community of travelers who have different concerns. In some of the countries listed above where homosexuality is illegal to some degree, that’s not the case for women where it is for men. There are other roadblocks when it comes to transgender travelers.
“There's a lot of differences between the LGBT community,” says Martindale. “It's not just, ‘We're going to sell to the LGBT community.’ There's lesbians, there's gays, there's trans, there's lots of different demographics within that community. So, [advisors] have got to learn that part of it, as well, and maybe specialize in one because it's like anything—you can specialize in travel, but [most] specialize in one particular part of travel.”
If you have any friends or family who identify within the LGBTQ+ community, Martindale suggests talking to them and finding out what they like and what their concerns are. Alternatively, “get involved in the community.”
Travel Advisor Resources
To that same point, “People need to learn the different terms of LGBTQ+ and what they mean if they want to get into that market.” The good news? “There's lots of education out there for travel advisors,” Martindale says.
The International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA) has a “great website for tips and things like where to go [and] how to be safe when traveling.” IGLTA also has an informative conference every year, which rotates between and U.S. and international destination every year. If you can’t attend that, Martindale suggests joining the association to stay in the loop.
At that conference, however, IGLTA brings together different vendors and provides “a really good learning platform for advisors that don't know much about that business.”
Additionally, there’s an event called Proud Experiences, held in Los Angeles. “It's a higher-end travel show that's also focused on the LGBT community, but they have all the hotels from all over the world,” Martindale tells us. “There are lots of resorts, different travel companies; they do events and speakers. It's a really good event to go to.”
In short, “There's lots of learning that people can do if they want to get into this demographic.”
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