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IGLTA honors ITB Berlin for its commitment to LGBT+ travel segment

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The reward for promoting awareness and acceptance of the LGBT+ Community in the global tourism industry: at the Annual Global Convention, which will take place from 24 to 27 April at the Hilton Midtown New York City, the International LGBT+ Travel Association (IGLTA) will present ITB Berlin with the Vanguard Award.

Every year, together with the IGLTA Foundation (www.iglta.org/The-IGLTA-Foundation), the public charity subsidiary of the IGLTA, the directors’ board presents the IGLTA Honors. The recipients are individuals, companies or organizations who have improved relations within the tourism community and raised awareness of LGBT+ travel around the world. The LGBT Travel Pavilion of ITB Berlin celebrated its debut back in 2010, and since then has become a highly-regarded role model for the presentation of the gay and lesbian travel segment at an international travel show. In addition to the extensive display area with its own conference venue, supporting events such as the LGBT+ Media Brunch, networking events, informative lectures, the LGBT+ ITB Convention Seminar – which since 2 years also includes the bestowal of an ITB Pioneer Award -, and, as of this year the International LGBT+ Leadership Summit, attract many visitors.

ITB’s commitment has made it possible to also position this segment at ITB Asia in Singapore and organize international ITB Academies on this topic as recently in Malta and Japan.

”ITB Berlin is proud to occupy a pioneering role in this important subject, and to be the recipient of such a prestigious award for its continuing efforts to promote international recognition of LGBT+ travel“, said Rika Jean-François, CSR officer of ITB Berlin and responsible for this segment. ”What began as a few community pioneers exhibiting here and there around ITB Berlin has over the years become a recognized platform. Together with our partner Diversity Tourism we have created a globally unique forum.“

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”We have got to the point now where at ITB Berlin we have created one of the liveliest and most diverse LGBT+ Travel Pavilions possible, with exhibitors and people taking part in discussion rounds from around the world“, is how Thomas Bömkes, LGBT+ consultant for ITB Berlin and Managing Director of Diversity Tourism GmbH described this market’s rising prospects. Rika Jean-François added: ”This award will give us the strength to continue defending LGBT+ travelers against discrimination in every country in the world and to ensure that they, just like any other travelers, can visit places where also local people are respected regardless of their sexual orientation.” Thomas Bömkes pointed out, that the economic potential of this travel market cannot be underestimated: “Studies have shown that accepting diversity can contribute significantly to a destination’s economic success.“

LGBT tourism has been represented at ITB Berlin since the Nineties. As a result of ITB Berlin’s CSR policy which promotes diversity and defends human rights in tourism and due to the keen interest expressed by exhibitors and visitors, Gay & Lesbian Travel was officially declared a segment in its own right at ITB Berlin 2010. Openness, creativity and lively interaction are the dominant features of this segment that has become one of the most wide-ranging at ITB Berlin. The LGBT Travel Pavilion currently boasts the world’s largest display of products for the gay and lesbian travel market of any trade show in the world.

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Hyatt expanding to include Thompson Hotels, Joie de Vivre, Alila and Destination Hotels

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Hyatt Hotels and Resorts is on an expansion spree. Booking Thompson Hotels will be getting guests credit on the World of Hyatt reward account soon.

Thompson Hotels is the first of the program’s new brands.  Thompson Hotels explains their brand as a luxury design is an ethos, rather than a rulebook, Thompson is a boutique hotel collection that hand-selects the likes of Gachot Studios, Tara Bernerd, Martin Brudnizki, Studio Gaia, Yabu Pushelberg, and Jim Walrod to give each of our properties an experience tailored to the location.

Altogether four distinctive brands will be added to World of Hyatt over the coming months: participating Thompson Hotels (starting March 28), Joie de Vivre (starting May 15), Alila and Destination Hotels coming soon.

More than 60 hotels will be added to World of Hyatt, across more than 20 new destinations including Zihuatanejo, Mexico; Vail, Colorado among others. The resort collection will expand by 60% and include legendary destinations such as Resort at Squaw Creek in California and Alila Seminyak in BalYou can enjoy 40+ new spas, 20+ new golf courses and 10 new ski destinations.

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Saint Lucian taxi company receives international service excellence certification

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A Saint Lucian taxi firm has become the first tourism taxi company in the Caribbean to be Hospitality Assured (HA) certified, an international certification programme for service excellence.

Holiday Taxi Limited is among a number of tourism enterprises in member countries of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) that recently completely the rigorous qualifying process towards certification.

The taxi company reported that the certification process significantly improved the knowledge and skills of its employees, who are now much better placed to strengthen its performance and overall competitiveness through service excellence.

“I would recommend [Hospitality Assured] to anybody,” said Holiday Taxi’s Lucien Joseph.

The Castries-based ground transportation firm was one of four tourism service providers whose participation in the HA certification process was funded by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) through a US$265,000 grant to train key HA support personnel and to fund the participation of 30 tourism micro, small and medium enterprises in the programme. The others businesses are Sunbreeze Hotel in Belize – the first hotel on the island of Ambergris Caye to be HA certified – as well as Grand Coastal Inn and Old Fort Tours in Guyana, both of which said they are now better prepared to introduce a culture of service excellence in all aspects of their businesses.

Hospitality Assured promotes and rewards the highest standards of service excellence in the hospitality sector and is seen as the standard for service and business excellence in the industry. It provides nine key performance indicators – customer research, the customer service promise, business leadership and planning, operational planning and standards of performance, resources that are required to deliver customer service standards, training and development, service delivery, service recovery and customer satisfaction improvement – against which an organization can continually evaluate and measure its performance with respect to service quality, while promoting an organizational climate of continuous improvement.

To facilitate the certification process the CTO assigns a business advisor to each enterprise to help the companies meet the minimum requirements on the nine steps of the Hospitality Assured standard. Certification is for a two-year period and there must be continuous improvement in order for a business to be recertified.

Ninety-one companies from fourteen CTO member countries have signed on to the program, with thirty-nine currently possessing certification. The businesses involved are mainly in the accommodation sub-sector, but there are also several sites and attractions, restaurants and coffee houses, tour and transportation companies, a retail store and a hospitality training institute.

Hospitality Assured is a service quality management certification owned by the Institute of Hospitality in the United Kingdom, managed and operated by the Hospitality Limited, U.K. and developed specifically for the tourism sector, to promote and reward the highest levels of service and business excellence. Hospitality Assured in the Caribbean is managed and promoted by the CTO. Any hospitality, leisure, tourism or service-oriented organization is eligible for Hospitality Assured certification, be they large or small, single or multi-operational.

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26th annual World Travel Awards opens for submissions

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World Travel Awards

World Travel Awards (WTA) is pleased to announce its annual “call for entries” for inclusion in the most prestigious awards and recognition initiative in travel and tourism.

Each country’s very best brands and products are now invited to submit their applications to participate and stand a chance to win the ultimate industry accolade.

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WTA’s annual quest is to identify and reward travel and hospitality excellence – those organisations that are driving the industry to new heights by creating greater and more innovative customer experiences.

Nominees this year range from a broad spectrum of categories covering Aviation, Tourist Attractions, Car Hire, Cruise, Destinations, Hotels & Resorts, Meetings & Events, Travel Agencies, Tour Operators and Travel Technology – to name but a few.

Graham Cooke, Founder, WTA, said: “We have been overwhelmed with the tremendous early response to industry entries, which have grown at a phenomenal rate in recent years.

“The worldwide interest shown in our Grand Tour 2019 is already significantly higher than this stage last year and serves to illustrate the importance of winning at the WTA when seeking to differentiate a brand in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

“We are seeing more companies than ever spearheading their global marketing campaigns with their award victories and we are humbled by reports of how triumph at the WTA has helped to bolster growth and revenues,” he added.

Celebrating its 26th anniversary in 2019, WTA is acknowledged across the globe as the ultimate travel accolade.

In the quest to identify and reward excellence, the organisation invites those brands that are pushing the boundaries of industry excellence to participate in the annual programme. Entry forms can be submitted here.