IGLTA Convention 2011 – interview with CEO
Over 500 delegates from 35 countries attended the IGLTA’s 28th Annual Global Convention in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA in May 2011. The five-day event hosted educational sessions from business leaders from across the world delivering presentations on marketing, product, trends, social media, and case studies.

Google provided a discussion session on optimising online visibility to engage the LGBT demographic across the internet proving that the IGLTA is becoming an influential travel body. Google had launched a LGBT viral video for the launch of its Chrome campaign entitled ‘It Gets Better’ to tap into the emotions and engage the consumer.

“With all the developments in the way travelers use technology, there was definite interest from our delegates in learning how to use these technology tools to reach consumers,” said John Tanzella, CEO IGLTA.

Brandon Feldman & Blake Landro, Google said ‘be found, be relevant, be engaging and be accountable’. With gay and lesbian travellers reading travel blogs at twice the rate of heterosexual users the Google team provided further advice; create a customised landing page, see how search engine queries are performing, understand that 95% of time spent online is outside of a search engine therefore content and community is essential. The Google presentation is up now at www.igltaconvention.org under the Post Convention tab on the home page.

On asking John Tanzella how will the gay travel industry will meet the new challenges and demands of a budget tight travel industry, he said “Online marketing and promotional tools such as Facebook will play an even more integral role in reaching travelers. It's also about finding creative new ways to inspire travel -- we're seeing tour operators break the traditional LGBT mold in their trip offerings.

“The SAS "Love is in the Air" campaign, which was recognized at the IGLTA
Honors presentation this year, is a great example. Hosting the first in flight same-sex marriage certainly garnered global attention for the airline.”

Florianopolis, Brazil presented 2012, the next destination to host the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA) Global Convention. The event, which will happen in April 2012, will bring hundreds of LGBT tourism professionals from all over the world. The destination is using this opportunity to promote Floripa as one of the main South American destinations for international Gay & Lesbian travelers. Check out this recent interview from Director, Marta Dalla Chiesa, to The Focus Group, talking about Gay and Lesbian Florianopolis. http://www.igltaconvention.org/?page_id=51

See Video – IGLTA Convention Gala summary