Expedia launches new gay travel site

In association with the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA), Expedia.com has launched a new site for LGBT travelers.

The site can be accessed here.

LGBT travelers can now search under Hotel Preferences for "LGBT-welcoming" hotels. Currently, about 500 hotels meet this definition.

The new site features both domestic and international destinations featuring a broad assortment of gay-friendly hotels, events, festivals, and nightclubs, including Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, New Orleans, Palm Springs, Provincetown, Puerto Vallarta, San Francisco, Toronto and South Florida. Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Paris and London. Hotels are searchable within each destination.

"At Expedia.com, this is in keeping with our mission to be the best place to book travel," said Tim MacDonald, senior vice president and general manager, Expedia.com. "This page will simplify and improve the shopping and booking experience for LGBT customers. It was based on research illustrating the difficulty in finding LGBT-welcoming hotels, and our solution was vetted by a group of LGBT professionals at Expedia and a roundtable of gay travel community members. IGLTA helped us determine the hotels that populate the store."

But it seems Expedia is late to the game.

Orbitz.com has been courting gay travelers since its inception and has always had a page devoted to LGBT travelers.

The site offers a multitude of worldwide gay-friendly destinations and hotels, and is a national corporate partner with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). It has also been voted one of the best places to work, earning a perfect score of 100% from the HRC's Corporate Equaltiy Index in 2009.

Barney Harford, CEO of Orbitz.com, said in a statement, "At Orbitz, we believe that diversity is key to our continued success. Non-discrimination has been and always will be central to both our employee policies and marketing practices. We truly "walk the talk" when it comes to being inclusive as demonstrated by the following examples:

* Orbitz has a perfect score of 100 with regard to the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality index.
* Orbitz won the GLAAD Media Award in 2004 for outstanding advertising and received the Commercial Closet Association’s Corporate Visionary Honor in 2006.
* Orbitz is one of the only brands in the world with the words "gay and lesbian" on the homepage.
* Orbitz invests in both mainstream and LGBT-specific charities year after year.

At Orbitz, we continually strive to improve the total trip experience for our customers. Throughout our site's evolution in offering innovative service and a wide variety of relevant vacation options, one thing has remained constant – our never-ending commitment to serve the needs of EVERY traveler."

The Orbitz.com site offers a slew of LGBT-friendly destinations worldwide, contributes to LGBT charities, and, as always, offers its low price assurance - if someone else books a flight or vacation package at a lower rate than you paid, Orbitz will reimburse you the difference.

Perhaps most importantly, the Orbitz.com LGBT website features a gay and lesbian travel blog, filled with ideas for gay travelers, and caters its offerings to gay men, lesbians, and LGBT families.

It's obvious Expedia.com has realized just how lucrative LGBT travel can be, and is mounting a campaign against Orbitz.com. But let's not forget who acknowledged us first, and give Orbitz.com the respect it deserves.

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