In a report on travel destination trends for LGBTQ2 travel in 2019, Travel Pulse selected just one Canadian city in its ‘top 30’ destinations: Montreal.
While the recognition does represent a foothold into this burgeoning market, a new initiative aims to increase Canada’s national profile as a premier tourism destination for the LGBTQ2 market: one where LGBTQ2 customers are respected, welcomed, and can socialize and travel safely.
Tourism HR Canada and principal project partner CGLCC, Canada’s LGBT+ Chamber of Commerce, along with many provincial and local labour market partners, will deliver diversity workshops and assist tourism businesses with how to effectively understand, value, and serve LGBTQ2 customers and employees.
Funded as part of the Government of Canada’s Canadian Experience Fund and delivered via the six Regional Development Agencies, this pan-Canadian initiative runs from September 2019 to March 2021. It builds on a successful series of workshops CGLCC conducted across Canada in March 2019.
The project aims to deliver a responsive, comprehensive, and sustainable LGBTQ2 Tourism Market Ready Program that will help businesses and communities welcome a lucrative and fast-growing LGBTQ2 market. It will additionally reinforce objectives set out by Canada’s Federal Tourism Growth Strategy, which identifies the LGBTQ2 market as a priority.
LGBTQ2 tourism is an opportunity for economic development with great potential for profitable, long-term products and services. By strengthening Canada’s tourism markets, this project will also contribute to the increase of well-paid, stable tourism jobs across the country, including in rural areas. LGBTQ2 tourism helps businesses and communities reach new market segments as a means for increasing competitiveness. The UN World Tourism Organization states that LGBTQ2 travellers are recognized as travelling with greater frequency and with higher-than-average spending. The global market is valued at US$200 billion annually.
Over the next two months, Tourism HR Canada will work with CGLCC to identify regional stakeholders and assess the uniqueness of each region to develop plans for delivery. If your tourism business would like to be a part of this exciting project, please contact Tourism HR Canada.
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