Travel. Learn. Connect.
On March 14, 2014, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the appointment of Fred Dixon as President & CEO of NYC & Company, New York City's offical marketing, tourism, and partnership organization. With more than 27 years of expereince in the travel industry, Fred has the overall responsibility for developing and implementing New York City's tourism and convention development strategy internationally as well as in domestic leisure and business markets. Joining NYC & Company in 2005, Fred led the aggressive and successful expansion of the CIty's international marketing efforts. With a strategic focus on growing visitation and visitor spending, NYC & Company focused on emerging global markets rapidly expanding the City's presence from six traditionally strong origin markets to 17 offices covering more than 28 countries. Fred is a respected and valued leader with positions on travel industry association boards, including the U.S. Department of Commerce's Travel and Tourism Advisory Board. He also is the City's primary liaison to the State's travel and tourism industry in addition to Empire State Department and I Love NY. Fred is a graduate of the University of Tennesssee and resides in midtown Manhattan.
Roger leads the U.S. Travel Association, the Washington, D.C.-based organization representing all segments of travel in the United States—an industry that generates $2.4 trillion in economic output and supports 15.6 million jobs. U.S. Travel’s mission is to increase travel to and within the United States. Dow regularly meets with executive branch and congressional leaders to discuss industry priorities, and his efforts have resulted in major legislative victories. He was instrumental in establishing Brand USA, the highly effective national travel and tourism promotion program. Beyond U.S. Travel’s role as chief travel industry advocate in Washington, the association under Dow’s leadership provides essential research, including analysis of travel’s significant economic impact and products such as the monthly Travel Trends Index. U.S. Travel produces annual events that connect the industry, such as IPW—the leading international inbound travel trade show—which drives $4.7 billion in future travel to the United States. For his work to unify the travel industry and increase its effectiveness, Dow is the recipient of multiple honors, including the 2018 MPI Industry Leader Award and the 2008 TRENDS Association Executive of the Year.
Before establishing Hansen&Partner and the ELLA International Lesbian Festival, Kristin earned a degree in Tourism and Hotel Management and worked internationally at luxury hotel chains like Kempinksi, Bayerischer Hof, and St. Regis Hotels. She has always been a humanitarian at heart with a strong interest in women's and development issues. For more than 12 years, she has dedicated her career to creating quality offerings for lesbian women and helping companies and destinations interested in being positioned as lesbian-friendly. Her new project, ELLA Global Community, is an association committed to promoting the lesbian cause, as well as for all women that fall outside the socially accepted definition of gender identity and sexual oritentation—including bisexual women. Currently actions are being held in Costa Rica in collaboration with various international NGO's and the local government. She also is greatly inspired by Senegal, where she spent a lot of time growing up and serves as First Deputy for the local aid organisation Aide Gandiole. Kristin is now based in Mallorca, Spain, and Munich, Germany and is fluent in English, German, Spanish, and French.
Peter Jordan is a consultant and researcher specialised in the curation and interpretation of consumer trends, for diverse clients from inside and outside the tourism industry. In a career spanning over a decade, he has built a strong reputation for delivering insights on tourism, marketing and consumer trends that are trustworthy, thought-provoking and inspire people to take action. Peter started his career in 2008 creating market trends reports at the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) in Madrid and has also managed research projects at the WYSE Travel Confederation and PATA. Since 2013 he has worked successfully as a consultant in tourism trends analysis, industry education and forward-planning, with a variety of market-leading brands in Europe and Asia. He is a respected author and commentator on LGBTQ travel, having authored both editions of the UNWTO's Global Report on LGBT Tourism produced in collaboration with IGLTA and the IGLTA Foundation, and has spoken at numerous events on the subject.
Mara Keisling is the founder and executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. Since 2003, she has led organizational and coalition efforts that have won significant advances in transgender equality, including the inclusion of gender identity in the U.S. Employment Non-Deiscrimination Act from 2007 onward and countless other federal- and state-level wins. As one of the leading voices for transgender equality in the U.S., Mara is regularly quoted in major media outlets. A proud Pennsylvanian, Mara received her bachelor's degree from Pennsylvania State University and did graduate work in American Government at Harvard University.
As a Head of Industry for Travel at Google, based in New York, Dougal is focused on helping companies across the industry transform their business to stay ahead of the changes in consumer behavior resulting from advancements in technology. Prior to joining Google in 2010, he spent a decade at Procter and Gamble but left to find somewhere he could get an email address that rhymed with his name. Dougal has both law and commerce degrees from his native homeland of Auckland, New Zealand. A passionate traveler, Dougal is now two for three in living in his favorite cities: Sydney, New York and Barcelona.
Auston Matta is the Consumer Marketing Manager for the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association. He grew up in Arizona and in 2012 sold his belongings and embarked on a one year, round-the-world trip with his husband. As part of the journey he started the travel site Two Bad Tourists - an online blog and travel resource featuring international gay-friendly destinations, gay city guides, festivals and events. He later founded the company Outfluential providing content creation, social media and influencer outreach to help brands, destinations and travel industry professionals promote their offering to the LGBT community.
David Paisley is CMI’s Senior Research Director, and has been with Community Research & Insights for 24 Years. He coordinates the company's quantitative and qualitative client research projects and professional educational programs. Paisley's work represents a wide variety of corporate, nonprofit and government entities including Hawaii Tourism Authority, Visit Florida, NYC & Company, For Lauderdale, Las Vegas, Kimpton Hotels, Chicago History Museum, Wells Fargo, Target Brands, AARP, Aurora Health Care, WNBA, Kaiser Family Foundation, Aetna, American Cancer Society and the United States Census Bureau. He is also a featured speaker at LGBTQ sales and marketing conferences, and conducts training webinars for corporations throughout North America and beyond. He lives in Joshua Tree and Palm Springs.
Thomas Roth, President and Founder, launched Community Marketing, Inc. in 1992, and has served as its President for over 25 years. Tom and his team have developed a spectrum of products and services to skillfully lead the company's global clients to their goals. Tom is now primarily dedicating his industy-leading expertise to head up the Community Marketing & Insights division, which produces the annual LGBTQ Tourism & Hospitality Survey and the LGBTQ Community Survey, as well as custom consumer research studies for a variety of market leaders. Tom engages in strategic consulting to CMI's diverse cllients in tourism, hospitality, banking, retail, pharmaceutical, beverages, real estate, insurance, government, etc., and conducts educational seminars for corporations and organizations.
John Tanzella is the President/CEO of the International LGBTQ+ Travel Association, the global leader in advancing LGBTQ+ travel. He has led the association since 2005, overseeing membership expansion to more than 80 countries, a growing staff based in Fort Lauderdale, Washington, DC, Madrid, London, Paris, Sao Paulo, Bogota and Cape Town, and volunteer representatives in 20 countries/regions.
Under his guidance, IGLTA took a giant stride forward and established the IGLTA Foundation as a means to both give bak and raise the profile of the LGBTQ+ tourism community worldwide. The Foundation focuses on research, education and providing leadership opportunities for future LGBTQ+ leaders in tourism. Leading up to this, IGLTA became the first LGBTQ+ organization in the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Affiliate Member program.
John holds an ex-officio seat on the board of directors of both IGLTA and the IGLTA Foundation. Additionally, he serves on several boards including Stonewall National Museum & Archives, Belmond's LGBTQ+ Advisory Council, and the French National Tourism organization Atout-France (although he speaks Italian, not French).
Photo by: NYC & Company
There are two guaranteed ways to transform people: time and travel. When IGLTA was created back in 1983, the world’s progressive possibilities—especially where LGBTQ+ communities were concerned—seemed limited. Then 36 years passed, and here we are in 2019, enjoying incredible progress, but still battling to overcome obstacles and struggles around the world.
It is such a privilege to explore the world—not to mention inspiring, enlightening, and just plain fun. As LGBTQ+ travelers, the connections we make add light and warmth to our lives.
In New York City, the 2019 forecast is rainbow-tinted. It’s the year the city commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising—the fateful event back in June 1969 that ignited the LGBTQ civil rights movement. And next year, we’re thrilled to hold our 36th Annual Global Convention in the city where it all began.
