Corporate America Embracing LBGT Customers, Travel Dollars

Major corporations and countries are vying to tap into the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender travel market --what experts are now calling a $65 billion industry.

And that $65 billion is an annual number and just in the United States.

Gay and lesbian travel has been a growing business for the past 30 years, spreading into everything from packaged vacations to high-end travel destinations.

But only recently has the business really boomed, experts said. The travel industry now has multiple magazines and trade publications dedicated to gay and lesbian travelers. Publicly traded companies have also added LGBT-dedicated marketing departments in order to possibly get a slice of that $65 billion pie.

“After many years of discrimination, gays and lesbians are more interested in companies that treat them with respect and do their best to accommodate them,” said Tom Nibbio, marketing manager with the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association. “And they have the purchasing power to show it.”

Major corporations such as American Airlines (AMR: 8.57, -0.28, -3.16%) and hotel chain Wyndram Worldwide(WYN: 23.61, -0.15, -0.63%), owner of 10 hotel chains including Ramada and Howard Johnson, have full-time employees dedicated to marketing and catering to LGBT customers. The staff work on everything from vacation packages to making sure their respective corporations donate to the appropriate charities.

 Corporate America Embracing LBGT Customers, Travel Dollars
FOXBusiness