Southwest Airlines has this week become the latest US air carrier to launch a gay-specific travel site. I’ve only reviewed the site briefly, but my initial impression is that it’s a solid first attempt to target LGBT travelers with a gay-positive message that is open, honest, and well, out front. The site features information on “gay-friendly destinations” served by the airline and an “In the Spotlight” feature that this week focuses on Philadelphia with in-depth information about the city (and speaking of Philadelphia, thanks to Jeff Guaracino at the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation for giving me the tip about Southwest’s launch of this new site).
The site also features a new gay-friendly tagline “We Take Pride in Partnering With You.” But most encouraging to me is the inclusion on the site of links to the Southwest Diversity Policy and the Southwest Diversity Program: the airline seems to understand that asking for our business is not enough. They seem to recognize they have to earn our business with gay-positive policies that signal their understanding of our community and their willingness to be engaged in issues we care about.
Regular readers might remember that I predicted in January that “LGBT travel and tourism marketing will break even further into the mainstream this year, with new brands and chains targeting our community in advertising and targeted PR campaigns.” While Southwest wasn’t on my radar, it’s encouraging to see that they’ve figured out something a lot of their competitors would do well to learn: the LGBT market is made up of many loyal travelers. Airlines that make a real effort to reach us will undoubtedly begin to earn our trust and the travel dollars that come with that trust.
I’ll be watching the progress of this new Southwest site to see how, and whether, they change it or add to it as they learn more about our market. In the meantime, let me know your thoughts about this latest effort by travel industry leader to reach LGBT customers.
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I’m certainly not knocking Southwest’s efforts, but… when I see site like this, I find myself wondering, how would I actually use this? Having this sort of page as a way to say “we welcome you” is nice, but I wonder if these kinds of mini-sites have functions beyond that.
Do you know if the page is intended as a landing page for gay-specific advertising and search results?
Southwest Airlines Launches Gay and Lesbian Travel Site
Southwest Airlines has just launched a travel site dedicated to the gay and lesbian community, following the example of American Airlines and other travel firms. Lets hope Southwest updates their terminology to include the bi and …