TOURISM AND THE LGBT COMMUNITY PART ONE: DIVERSITY • -based, LGBT Owned/Operated company founded in 1992

• Serves and clients throughout the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia and Japan

• 20+ years of consumer research, strategic consulng, markeng planning, communicaons, and training services

• Dedicated research panel of 70,000+ LGBT consumers

• Online surveys, focus groups, online focus groups, telephone surveys, intercepts and other methodologies

Research, development, communicaons and markeng strategies. Proudly serving industry leaders since 1992

Some of CMI’s LGBT Tourism Research, Educaon & Markeng Clients Research, development, communicaons and markeng strategies. Proudly serving industry leaders since 1992

Some of CMI’s Non-Tourism Research, Educaon & Markeng Clients

First, a Quick Orientaon to the LGBT Community

© 2014 Community Marketing Inc. LGBT is an Umbrella Term for Many Communies Men Bisexual

But just because a person is “in the LGBT community” does not mean that their other diversity points are equally--if not more--important.

Gender Age Ethnicity Geographic etc.

Why would we expect a 65 year old lesbian couple from Sedona, AZ to in the same way as a single 22 year old gay man from Manhaan? Some points for the travel industry to consider…

✓ LGBT make up about 5% of the adult populaon.

✓ Desnaons and are serving LGBT guests, regardless if they have an LGBT outreach campaign, or not. That makes LGBT diversity training important for everyone.

✓ Surveys show LGBT travel paerns index at about 1.5 mes the average American.

✓ Tradionally, have been considered a DINK or “Dual Income, No Kids” community. But that is changing fast, especially among lesbian and bisexual women. Some points for the travel industry to consider…

✓ LGBTs have been fighng for equality for decades. Recent victories such as Marriage Equality have been major steps. However there are sll issues with employment and housing discriminaon in some states.

✓ Transgender community members face significant discriminaon.

✓ In some countries, LGBTs face imprisonment and even death.

✓ And finally, LGBTs have historically received higher rates of physical and verbal violence and harassment. Safety is a very important issue for the LGBT community, especially when traveling, and even here in California

10 POINTS TO CONSIDER WHEN SERVING LGBT GUESTS

© 2014 Community Marketing Inc. 1

✓ If you can apply this basic concept in your mind and in your work pracces, you will be fine.

✓ If you can’t treat every guest--and your colleagues--with dignity and respect, tourism might not be the best job choice for you. 2

✓ We all have personal biases and . That is understandable and something we should all work on over me. ✓ A training like this can not resolve our own personal biases, and it is not intended to. ✓ But it should be stated: As a worker for this company, as part of this communies tourism community, you can not allow your own personal biases to get in the way of the requirement to treat every guest and your colleagues with dignity and respect. ✓ And this is especially important for management, as bias can lead to legal concerns.

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✓ When it comes to travel, the LGBT community is looking for the same things as everyone else: Relaxaon, romance, adventure, fun, learning and new experiences.

✓ But like all groups of people, there are some special consideraons which we will discuss in this training.

✓ But first, lets focus on what is the same among all travelers. CMI’s 9th Annual LGBT Community Survey:

If you had to describe yourself or your personality in three words, which words would you use?

Friendly Loyal Outgoing Honest Caring Fun Funny Smart Intelligent Loving

Please tell us the three words that best describe the qualies of your partner or spouse. Loving Kind Loyal Caring Smart Honest Funny Supporve Intelligent

Fabulous is Not Really an LGBT Identy

CMI’s 9th Annual LGBT Community Survey:

When you think of your “travel personality,” which three words most describe your travel movaons and priories?

Relax 23%

Fun 18%

Culture 14%

Comfort 9%

History 7%

Food 7%

Explore 6%

New 6%

Curious 5%

Warm 5%

Note: Word concepts were combined in reporting. For example words like food, Base: All LGBT USA n=3,503 foodie and cuisine were combined and reported as food. 4

OK:

Not OK:

Cauon: The following terms and images are often used in corporate marketing to describe or refer to the community. Please rate how you feel about each, when you see them used by corporations. My opinion of the use of the term in corporate advertising is...

% Positive Among Among LGBT 80% 74% LGBT-friendly 79% 69% Lesbian & Gay 70% 63% Gay & Lesbian 70% 72% Rainbow (the image / graphic) 68% 57% LGBTQ 67% 53% Gay-friendly 66% 66% Everyone-welcoming 51% 50% GLBT 49% 54% Gay-welcoming 44% 46% (the image / graphic) 42% 32% "Rainbow" (the word) 40% 29% 33% 22% LGBTQQIA 30% 19% 27% 22% LGBT, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender OK: partner, husband /wife, marriage equality

sexual orientaon, gender identy sexual preference, alternave lifestyle, Not OK: your friend, those people, that market,

transgendered, homosexual, “gay marriage” Cauon: queer, lifestyle, GLBT

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✓ Reservaons / front desk is the place to make a good first impression. ✓ You cannot make assumpons about your guests. The two men in front of you may be gay-partners, straight coworkers, brothers, or two gay friends not looking to share a bed. How can you know? ✓ Develop reservaons systems that allows bed type request, double confirm and/or ask if unknown. ✓ If a telephone reservaon, treat the request neutrally, “what type of bed(s), how many people?” The gender of the guests is not relevant. ✓ Treat everyone the same. Without atude, assumpon or influence. ✓ Tone is everything. Your front desk staff should feel absolutely comfortable booking same-sex couples without making changes in tone or expressing awkward body language. ✓ This may be obvious: Almost all LGBTs have experienced the “oh, you’re gay” expression at some point in their life. 6

✓ LGBT-friendly tourism means LGBT-knowledgeable. ✓ Staff should be able to ancipate follow up quesons from LGBT guests, such as locaon of gay bars, cafes and other local venues. ✓ If applicable, know areas to avoid for safety concerns. ✓ Have local LGBT resources available such as LGBT newspapers, gay business chamber directories and informaon about LGBT fesvals and events. ✓ Of course, some and rural hotels have lile or no LGBT infrastructure in their communies. That is OK. Just be honest and knowledgeable. Perhaps there is an LGBT-owned café, art gallery, or chef in the area. Ask LGBT locals for referrals. 7

✓ Being LGBT-friendly means all departments and all staff are involved, not just sales and markeng. ✓ Special aenon to communicaons such as leers and amenies (e.g. avoid assumpons like “Mr. and Mrs.”). ✓ Opposite-sex couple language vs. gender neutral language on sales and markeng materials and everyday staff/guest communicaons. ✓ Handling complaints from “other” guests when same-sex couples show basic affecon, such as holding hands in the lobby or giving a kiss to a partner. Use policy based response, like “The does not have a policy against two people showing basic affecon.”

“I cried when I went to fill out the form. We were about to drop thousands of dollars at this hotel and the form said, "Bride" and "Groom.” The sales staff was trying to explain that it didn't matter and he'd cross it off. It does matter.” 8

✓ LGBTs can be “invisible,” and we hear slurs and jokes all the me. ✓ Staff or guests somemes make LGBT slurs or jokes (hosle or not) in front of a guest. Culturally, we live in a me where racial jokes are not acceptable, but gay jokes or transgender jokes oen are. ✓ This may be true among the LGBT community itself, too. ✓ LGBTs are sensive to non-verbal communicaon, such as awkward looks, chuckles and pauses in speech by hotel staff. ✓ Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender jokes are inappropriate in the work seng. How would your company respond to an employee making a racially-charged comment? The same employee discipline should be expected for inappropriate all LGBT jokes or slurs. ✓ Same policies must be applied when addressing guest behavior. 9

✓ Transgender refers to a broad range of people who experience and/or express their gender differently than what most people expect. Transgender is an umbrella term that includes people who are gender non-conforming. ✓ Transgender people experience a high level of discriminaon. ✓ Verbal and physical violence is oen experienced by transgender individuals. ✓ Travel may not feel “safe,” especially among transgender individuals. ✓ Policies: Sexual orientaon and gender identy are two separate consideraons, and both should be in your non-discriminaon policy. ✓ Public restrooms are a parcularly risky place. Consider offering a gender-neutral opon. 10

✓ Training like this is not meant to be scary or sfiling. ✓ The LGBT community appreciates people who are genuine and fun. ✓ Just always remember that if you are treang all your guests with dignity and respect, you are most likely meeng the diversity needs of all of your guests Learn more… www.CommunityMarkengInc.com

David Paisley Community Markeng & Insights 584 Castro St. #834 San Francisco, CA 94114 Tel +1 415/437-3800 • Fax +1 415/552-5104 david@CommunityMarkengInc.com

Community Markeng, Inc. is an NGLCC Cerfied LGBT Owned Business Enterprise.