Kuoni may look to double the number of LGBT experts it employs as sales take off.
The operator started focusing more on the sector last year, training 10 LGBT travel specialists initially. The company said the initiative had been inspired by the TTG LGBT Conference, held in July, which was aimed at educating the trade on how to sell travel to the LGBT market.
Mark Duguid, vice-president commercial and product management at Kuoni, told TTG the company was now assessing whether to increase its number of specialists.
“We thought long and hard about it and wanted to do it carefully to avoid pink washing,” he said.
Situation reassessment
“The heart of what we do in this area is less about product and more about the customers and their comfort levels, and the advice we can give them.”
He suggested Kuoni would reassess the situation in the second quarter. “We will see where we are and look to see how many more we need – maybe even the same number again,” he said.
“Many gay and lesbian couples already book with Kuoni, so this is really about stepping things up and making sure the sales team are knowledgeable about the legal and cultural positions of the destinations Kuoni sells.”
General travel trends
He acknowledged that it was difficult to nail down statistics on general travel trends for same-sex couples across all Kuoni products, but said it was possible to capture data on same-sex honeymoons.
“That’s grown 279% in five years and we’ve seen a 76% spike just in the past two years since the legalisation of same sex marriage here. There is real growth opportunity in the market,” he said.
The Maldives, Thailand and the US are the top three honeymoons for same-sex couples, although Duguid expressed surprise that the Maldives was number one, given that same-sex relationships are technically illegal in the country. However, he added that based on his own experience, guests were always treated well.
Duguid also said staffing up in LGBT was part of an overall programme to keep investing in staff to enhance areas of expertise.
“Things have changed dramatically – if we need new product or specialist areas, we can bring them to market a lot quicker,” he said
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