Open Jaw :: On The Town ::

with Caleigh Arbuckle
07MAY09

Katy Rockett and Katie Olsson of Intrepid

Loren Christie, Canada AM Travel Expert; Rob Sharp, Co-Founder Out Adventures; Andrew Roberts, AMRO Worldwide

Gay Travel Comes Out Of The Closet

It’s not just about San Francisco and Amsterdam any more. Gay travel is becoming mainstream, and this week it will really be mainstream in Toronto, as the city hosts the annual Gay and Lesbian Travel Show.

To kick off the event, gay travel specialist OUT Adventures held a cocktail party at the office of their partner company, Intrepid Travel. Attending were members of Toronto’s gay community as well as delegates to the Show from the United States, England, Mexico and Brazil.

“When we developed OUT Adventures, we felt we were creating a product that was missing in the industry,” said co-founder Robert Sharp. So far, he says, popular destinations for the new company are Thailand and Peru.

Andrew Roberts of England-based Amro Worldwide, a gay travel company, says that while the English middle-market gay traveller is trimming his or her holiday budget, the luxury clientele is unchanged by the economic downturn. He says popular destinations in North America include New York City and Fort Lauderdale.

As guests enjoyed munchies from around the world in Intrepid’s exotic store (“Very cool space,” said guest Loren Christie, Canada AM’s travel expert), they also got to vote on cheeky ad mockups for OUT Adventures. The two most popular ones featured (a) an outhouse – with a shelf loaded with lots of cologne and hair product and (b) the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, changed so that he is holding his hands over his eyes at the thought of gay travellers in Brazil!