By Clovis Casemiro, IGLTA Membership Coordinator - Brazil, clovis.casemiro@iglta.org
We have all heard of the importance of joining efforts, even among competitors. Some people have been doing this forever and in the LGBTQ+ worldwide community this is also a reality of survival and progress. Political attacks against our community have grown a lot in Brazil and other countries, so it is increasingly important to understand that doing business among our peers is fundamental.
I always heard from our members in Brazil that it was important to “protect ourselves” and continue offering our products to the large LGBTQ + community in our country; after all, we are something like 18 to 20 million people, so if 30% travel annually, it is a market unto itself!
And so we created the POOL IGLTA Brasil. We first thought about the difficulty of promoting the products of agents and tour operators, members of IGLTA, for such a large market. But we discovered together that many have products that we could start selling together to reach groups of LGBTQ+ travellers.
We quickly went from seven interested parties to more than 15 professionals who understand and support cross-selling and satisfied customers; they also understand that through an agency and operator specializing in what they sell, they get better rates, payment terms and a lot of security while traveling. During the process, the group included the largest consolidator in South America: RexturAdvance, which is part of the CVC Corp group, a giant in our market. (The members are: Blumar Turismo, Collection Hotels, Equality Turismo, Havas Creative Tours, HH Festival, Liberté Turismo, MH Tour, Mstar Turismo, Newit Operaoora, Plural Tours, Revista ViaG, RexturAdvance, Sonder APP, Soul Traveler Operadora, UAU Turismo, Velle Velle Representações, VIP Guest Brasil Turismo.)
Our meetings are informal, we request spaces from different types of partners and members, such as airlines, hotels and workspaces, in order to learn more about the company that receives us, as was done with Aerolineas Argentinas, Velle Representações (river cruises), collection hotels (Estelar chain of Colombian hotels).
At these meetings, everyone has their time to talk to promote products for the group to work on and share news from the Brazilian and international markets, and discuss participation in events such as the LGBT Tourism Forum, Rainbow Run, Gay Expo, ABAV, Festuris Gramado and others business possibilities. We have planned the next meetings with Alitalia, Visit São Paulo, and Cuba Destination.
It is worth mentioning that some POOL members are from Rio, Campinas and Porto Alegre, and they actively participate through e-mails and also via the Whastapp group as a channel of communication and promotion of products and services.
If your company has a product for the Brazilian market, contact IGLTA Membership Coordinator-Brazil, Clovis Casemiro, and we will review it and see where it could fit into our agenda. Thank you very much for your participation.
Contact: Clovis Casemiro – clovis.casemiro@iglta.org