Skift Take

LGBTQ consumers are a particularly well-traveled and high-spending business source for travel advisors. Serving them requires knowledge and sensitivity about their preferences, as well as the legal and cultural landscape in various destinations.

Whether you are a home-based travel advisor or you work in a large office servicing high-profile accounts, the Travel Advisor Innovation Report will have you covered with the trends, news, and features you’ll need to stay on top of an ever-changing marketplace.

LGBTQ travelers represent a dynamic and high-spending segment of the traveling public. They also face particular risks and hostility when visiting certain destinations, including some where same-sex relationships aren’t even legal. These attitudes and laws may come as a shock to young LGBTQ travelers who grew up in more tolerant times and are used to expressing affection freely.

Travel advisors serving LGBTQ clients need to be knowledgeable about the various cultural and legal situations in the destinations they recommend. Experts serving the LGBTQ market say that advisors must also pose the right questions to ensure that their clients’ vacations are safe and enjoyable.

For more coverage of pertinent issues, click here.

Any suggestions for the coverage you would like to see are welcome. Feel free to contact me at [email protected].

— Maria Lenhart, Travel Advisor Editor

Featured Stories


Travel Advisors Serving LGBTQ Travelers Must Know All the Nuances: Travel advisors serving the LGBTQ community need to be familiar with norms and laws affecting their clients in destinations around the globe. That doesn’t mean banning every unfriendly destination, but does require knowing how to deal with them.

Disney Gets Tough on Strollers and Smokers to Prep for Star Wars Crowds:
Tell your clients to leave their mammoth strollers and cigs at home when visiting Disney parks. There’s always Universal and other parks to consider.

Viking Sky Rescue Doesn’t Appear to Be Hurting Cruise Demand: Cruise customers seem to be a hardy bunch who are shrugging off the recent Viking Sky dramas. Advisors have been spared a flood of cancellations and it looks like business as usual for cruising.

Tourism

The Big Fat Indian Election Is the Country’s New Tourism Draw: Politics and tourism are strange bedfellows, but the big fat Indian general election next month is giving that notion a vote of no confidence. The festival of democracy can spark a new niche: election tourism.

Hotels

Hyatt Expands Loyalty Program to Include Its Two Roads Hospitality Brands: World of Hyatt members have a wider spectrum of hotels to look forward to in their loyalty program later this year. Starting last week, some of the brands in Hyatt’s Two Roads Hospitality unit will start getting incorporated into the loyalty program.

Luxury Buzz

The Luxury Travel Industry’s Most Overused Buzzwords: Are you ready to offer a bespoke, luxury experience to a millennial client? Think about “curating” your vocabulary to avoid yawn-inducing buzzwords.

Just Wow

Wow Air Finally Calls It Quits: It’s the end of the road for Wow Air. But what does its failure mean for Iceland’s aviation and tourism industries?

Wow Air Joins 20 Other Airlines That Folded in Just the Past Year: Wow Air’s failure stranded passengers all over its route network and it got a lot of attention because of its role in Iceland’s tourism success story. But check out the list of airlines that have folded in just the last 12 months. The aviation business isn’t for the squeamish.

Skift Travel Advisor Editor Maria Lenhart [[email protected]] curates the Skift Travel Advisor Innovation Report. Skift emails the newsletter every Tuesday. Have a story idea? Or a juicy news tip? Want to share a memo? Send her an email.

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Tags: cruise, disney, gay travel, hyatt, lgbtq, travel advisor innovation report, travel agents, wow air

Photo credit: Jose Guerrero, left, and Patrick Rodriguez chat before their wedding ceremony in West Hollywood, California on July 1, 2013. Travel advisors need to know where it is safe to travel for their LGBTQ clients. Jae C. Hong / The Associated Press

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