Welcome to the Travel Impressions Gay and Lesbian Travel program – the online vacation source for your clients’ gay-friendly vacations. Travel Impressions ensures that the vacation experience you and your clients select is one that is right for them, their partners, their friends and family – both immediate and extended. The Gay & Lesbian Travel program is just another product of Travel Impressions, Ltd. (TI), an award winning vacation travel provider with more than thirty-three years of travel experience. Travel Impressions is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.

We know the importance of selecting a destination and property for your clients’ holiday that will make them feel comfortable and welcome. Each one of the properties available to you via TI’s Gay & Lesbian Travel program has been hand selected to ensure that happens. Travel Impressions has taken this concern to heart. Before promoting any of our properties as gay-friendly, each one is contacted directly and confirms it is a property that is open to actively welcoming gay and lesbian vacationers and extending the same service levels, courtesies and professionalism as they extend to all other visitors. Being a property in TI’s Gay & Lesbian Travel program also means that it is a property for the discerning vacationer who enjoys the finer things in life, as well as gay-friendly.

Gay Friendly Verified Product Line

In September of 2006, yet another survey was conducted examining the GLBT travel market. Over the years numerous studies and surveys have been conducted in an attempt to determine what the GLBT community prefers when traveling on vacation. Overall, the findings of these surveys, conducted by a variety of sponsors, have been consistent in their results.

One of the primary findings relates to the importance of a destination’s “gay-friendliness” in the decision making process for a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender vacationer in selecting their vacation destination. The September 2006 survey, sponsored by sixteen travel related companies or organizations, was jointly conducted by the Travel Industry Association (TIA); Harris Interactive, a specialist in online research; and Witeck-Combs Communications, a firm that has studied the gay and lesbian market for fourteen years. The study involved canvassing 2,020 self-identified travelers age 21 and older nationwide. The study also encompassed data from 1,010 heterosexual adult travelers.

The study found that 48% of gay male and 47% of lesbian travelers specifically cited the “gay friendly” designation as “important” or “extremely important” when choosing a leisure destination. Similar results have been found by the annual, now in their 11th year, LGBT Community Surveys conducted by the Community Marketing, Inc., Gay Market Research & Development Lab.

When identifying destinations as being “gay friendly”, the majority of the TIA respondents described them as being “a place where gay visitors and same-sex couples are known to be safe from harassment, intimidation, threats or physical violence.” This is why Travel Impressions has taken upon ourselves to verify the gay-friendliness of each of the properties in TI’s Gay & Lesbian Travel program.

As you work with TI’s Gay & Lesbian Travel program to help plan and book your client’s vacation you will see that your options are many. Your gay friendly choices cover a complete range of well known and highly respected hotel chains whether looking for an urban experience or romantic sun and fun getaway. High-rise hotel or expansive resort, take a holiday with Travel Impressions and create a memorable vacation experience for your customer.