Among my many facets is having helped to create and now offering, together with Franco Reinaudo, the current president of the Brazilian Tourism Association GLS – ABRAT GLS, training so that tourism professionals welcome gay and lesbian travelers .
The training is part of the “Brazil destination diversity” project, an agreement between ABRAT GLS and the Ministry of Tourism that will initially include training courses in three tourist destinations. The first took place on the 30th and 31st of July in the city of Florianópolis.
I had two big surprises in this experience. The first was that there was a large number of interested parties, with registrations being sold out just two days after opening. The courses were planned for 90 participants, but demand was so great that 150 ended up attending the lectures and more than 40 people were on the waiting list.
Even the training that took place in a guesthouse on Campeche beach, twenty kilometers from the center and during a cold and rainy afternoon, was crowded! The people there are much more willing than us São Paulo residents on a rainy day…
My second surprise was that, from maids to hotel owners, the audience of professionals who listened to us not only showed great openness to the new information we brought, but also great concern about welcoming in a natural and hospitable way the gays and lesbians they already identify as clients. .
It was possible to notice, at least among those present, that professionals in the tourist trade are making an effort to really welcome, to really understand how to please homosexual tourists.
The questions were very practical, such as how to mention the double bed option to two men or two women without embarrassing them, and how to obtain lists of GLS places to recommend to guests.
It was great to feel that the people of Santa Catarina seem to be leaving aside the historical prejudices that our culture teaches everyone and caring much more about offering good tourist services and dealing with gays and lesbians in a respectful and open manner.
They also gave the impression of having this objective not only because the GLS segment shows the potential for profits, but because of the pride in working correctly. Every now and then Brazil surprises us with good news, and the training days in Santa Catarina were one of those occasions for me.
It is no surprise that Florianópolis was chosen to host the next symposium of IGLTA, the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association, in March 2009. The city will then have the opportunity to demonstrate to the members of this is the largest tourism association in the GLS segment their willingness to please gay and lesbian visitors.
And who knows how to teach by example to other Brazilian destinations with the potential to attract GLS tourists how Brazilian professionals can behave in a hospitable and prejudice-free manner like in the most advanced countries in the world.
* Laura Bacellar is a writer and book editor, currently responsible for the first lesbian publisher in Brazil, the Malagueta Publisher.
