Traveling, when conditions allow, is carried out through an extremely easy process. It is enough to buy a plane ticket in any of the dozens of platforms that exist for it. A hotel? Easy peasy. Two clicks, a few filters to refine the search and done. For this reason, now more than ever, the travel agency they have to become an ally, even a best friend that knows all your hobbies to be an essential service for today's traveler. One that knows every corner of your destiny and that's right on the mark of what you're looking for. With this in mind is born The Queer Travel , the first receptive travel agency LGBTQ+ of Spain, whose objective is to offer a completely personalized and tailor-made service, selecting from hotels, restaurants and guides to tours, activities or events.
The pandemic was the moment when three friends decided to combine their experience as travel agents and communication to start their own company. “We know that the situation is not the most prone but it is our initiative to see how far we can go. We have been planning everything for almost a year and it was now or never”, explains Antonio Pablo Herrero, one of the founders of the agency. But, Why is it so necessary to create a travel agency directed solely and exclusively for the LGBTQ+ community?
“We can go to any agency, obviously, but being part of the community we know that a more concrete leisure . Most of the time there are no publications that have this type of activities or updated routes, so it is very, very difficult to find ways. alternatives to enjoy a city ”, he explains. “Furthermore, compared to general leisure, the options are pretty slim ”. In a closer and more careful way, agencies such as The Queer Travel arise with the intention of giving a more careful and personalized treatment to travelers who seek to see their cultural and social interests in your mode of travel.
Scotland makes history
Everything indicates that one of the points for the tourism recovery It's going to fall on the LGBTQ+ community. “They tend to have more money available to spend on leisure, so that can be one of the strengths. Turespaña, for example, has gone to the last convention in Berlin promoting LGBTQ+ tourism, so yes, it is considered as a strong point for tourism to return to its normal course”, explains Herrero. An interview in the shanghai magazine last February, in which the journalist Agustín Gómez Cascales asked the current head of Turespaña for him future Madrid as an LGTBI destination , the second in the world.
“The LGTBI segment is called to be one of the first to recover, because it has its own characteristics that make the predisposition to travel is greater, and Spain continues to have an offer for that powerful tourist. Although right now we do not have the Prides or nightlife, we do have a wide range of accommodation where there is no discrimination, with safety on public roads and a lot of respect”, argued Gómez Cascales.
In addition to monumental and tourist routes focused on the history and transformation of specific neighborhoods thanks to the LGBTQ+ community, as well as nightlife, the security It is one of the benefits of having agencies like The Queer Travel, something that the traveler does not always find when arriving at their destination.
"It's getting harder and harder to meet you uncomfortable situations or strange, but what we want to achieve is that our clients never have to face them", they explain from the agency. "We are linked to hotels with close treatment and make the community feel welcome. In which you don't have to endure looks or in which you get to the room and find two separate beds. Little big things that make the difference in what your ideal trip should be, that's all we're looking for. That the community feels welcome wherever it goes."