I’ve written before about growing interest in environmental protection and climate change issues in the LGBT community. As I said in a post back in February, “To me, this interest is yet another signal that gays and lesbians are interested in many of the same things as everyone else: we care about the planet we live on, too.”
Last week at the 8th International Conference on Gay and Lesbian Tourism, I was interested to learn that our friends at Community Marketing are seeing more proof of that in their research, too.
During a presentation last Tuesday, CMI president Tom Roth highlighted results of the organization’s 12th Annual LGBT Tourism Report regarding environmental issues (he referred to the results as the “greening of gay travel”). Tom reported that this year, 87.1% of survey respondents agreed with the statement “human behavior affects climate change,” and 49.8% of survey respondents agreed with the statement “I would be willing to pay to offset the cost of my emissions.”
I haven’t seen any figures about the number of gays and lesbians opting to participate in carbon offsetting or other sustainability programs in the travel industry, but I’d suggest that companies engaged in this space consider gay and lesbian travelers as a viable, and valuable, audience. If we’re willing to engage in environmentally-responsible actions when we travel, providers would be smart to begin to focus on offering us those choices.
As the market expands and gay and lesbian travelers become more discriminating and demanding, it may be that non-gay service offerings such as the eco-friendly practices of service providers are the “next wave” of gay and lesbian outreach. As I’ve often said, we are sophisticated consumers and it may be that while we expect travel industry leaders to be gay-friendly and active in our community, we now also expect them to be eco-friendly and active in the global community.
What do you think? Do you consider the environmental impact of your travel? How much impact does the environmental profile of an airline, hotel, car rental provider or destination have in your decision to select one over another? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
P.S. Thanks to my partner Mark for the photo of the Rio Grande in New Mexico at the start of this post.
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Hi Guys
Love the blog.
I am a consultant to Fleishman-Hillard in London. I used to be Managing Director of Weber Shandwick’s PA Division in London before semi-retiring to the South of France to build a gay resort (checkout http://www.bellerophon.fr).
My partner Carlos is the European Ambassador of the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA) so he’s mr gay travel in Europe.
I know Tom Roth well (the guy from Community Marketing in the green gay tourism post) and indeed we yesterday appointed our “green architect” to ensure that we build the greenest gay resort in the world!
If we can ever do anything to help you guys, just let me know.
Meanwhile, please do add me to your mailing list.
Best wishes
Paul