25 June 2015 | travelweekly.co.uk business Essential news, comment and analysis TOP STORY


EMBRACE STAFF FROM MINORITIES


WE MUST THE INDUSTRY’S


ATTITUDE TO LGBT STAFF COULD BE


BETTER, SAY SPEAKERS AT A TRAVEL WEEKLY


BUSINESS BREAKFAST ON ‘EQUALITY IN


TRAVEL’. JENNIFER MORRIS REPORTS


business breakfast


The travel industry has some way to go before it can be seen as “embracing” members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, rather than “tolerating” them. Referring to the sector’s


recruitment of openly LGBT people, Mark Anderson, managing director of Virgin Holidays, said: “There are many businesses that you would probably describe as having created a tolerance culture. I hate that word: it should be not be tolerated, it should be embraced.” Anderson, who started his


career at retail chain C&A and has 72 • travelweekly.co.uk — 25 June 2015


been openly gay for many years, said: “C&A was a good, Dutch, Roman Catholic company, so you can imagine that being gay in that combination was not that easy.” Asked whether he thought the


travel industry is more embracing of LGBT people today, he said: “There are definitely some enlightened organisations out there both within travel and outside travel, where actually it would probably be a lot easier than I found it when I came out, when I worked at BAA [British Airports Authority]. I certainly don’t think we can put our feet up.”


Anderson recalled being shocked when a senior manager at Virgin Holidays, at the end of his time at the company, came out to him. “I had worked with the person


for years, yet even in our culture he had not felt able to come out,” said Anderson. “We [the industry] are on the


right track, and events such as this, where we talk about it and stimulate debate, are really important.”


Simon Altham, managing director of Hoseasons, said


CONTINUED ON PAGE 70


Mark Anderson: ‘We are on the right track, and events such as this, where we talk about it and stimulate


debate, are really important’


PICTURES: MATT SPRAKE


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