I’m constantly talking about how LGBTQ travelers are an underserved market because it’s true. We love to travel. We spend tons of money on it. We have fewer options that truly cater to our needs, and some of our tried-and-true fave vacation spots now have anti-queer and trans laws that make us feel unsafe and unwelcome.
Let’s not dwell on the negative, because starting next year, LGBTQ travelers will have another option for planning trips from LGBTQ friendly airline Virgin Atlantic.
Virgin Atlantic announced the LGBTQ initiative at the 2024 Virgin Atlantic Attitude Awards ceremony in London, where chief commercial officer Juha Jรคrvinen had this to say:
“The initiatives will empower people to discover new destinations by recommending LGBTQ+ friendly hotels, offering advice on the best ways to enjoy the destination, where to go, providing unique insights and tips, what to see โ all curated by local LGBTQ+ experts.”
The goal is to support queer travelers in “confidently” making planning and booking holiday travel to destinations where we can be ourselves authentically.
Jรคrvinen connected the dots between the LGBTQ travel planning service and other queer-friendly initiatives from Virgin.
Virgin developed a “Be Yourself” DEI training program and requires all staff and partners to take it.
They have a gender-neutral uniform policy and offer pronoun badges for employees and travelers.
Virgin Atlantic’s staff can choose whether to wear makeup and are allowed to have visible tattoos โ something you might not realize is half of all queer people and over 2/3 of all queer women in the US are tattooed.
They not only say they are an ally, they’ve demonstrated their allyship in meaningful ways over the years, and I’m excited to see how they roll out this new LGBTQ-friendly offering.
The announcement was short and sweet. As more details become available, I’ll share them with you! In the meantime, check out other LGBTQ friendly brands and travel companies standing up for trans rights!
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