Tech, Travel, and Twang!
Come for the thoughts, stay for the tea. The co-founders of Destination Innovate, Jennifer Barbee and Kristen Cruz brew up the latest industry tea every Tuesday - diving into simmering issues, hot trends, and special guests. Grab a cup and let’s spill the tea!
Tech, Travel, and Twang!
Don't Miss the Mark: The LGBTQ+ Community's Impact on Tourism
Can a simple "happiness list" transform your career? Rachel Covello's journey from corporate sales to becoming a pivotal figure in LGBTQ tourism proves it can. Join us for an inspiring conversation with the publisher of OutCoast.com, as Rachel shares her remarkable shift and the evolution of her platform. Learn how a personal quest for happiness led her to launch OutCoast, a vibrant space for inclusive travel stories, and how her collaboration with the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association and Visit Florida has helped shape LGBTQ tourism. We also discuss the unique challenges faced by this sector in Florida and the strategies Rachel employs to create welcoming and inclusive spaces amid changing political and social climates.
October's LGBTQ History Month and National Coming Out Day is more than just dates on a calendar; they're pivotal moments to market destinations as inclusive havens. Rachel walks us through successful strategies from states like Illinois, Connecticut, and Colorado, driven by Gen Z's evolving views on gender and sexuality. She offers actionable advice for Southern states and traditionally less inclusive destinations on how to partner with content creators to authentically showcase their welcoming spirit. Rachel highlights the importance of fostering inclusivity in travel, not just for the community's benefit but for the destinations that embrace them. Don't miss this episode packed with insights, strategies, and the long-term benefits of inclusive tourism.
Where to find Rachel Covello:
đź”— LinkedIn
đź”— outcoast.com
@rachelcovello on Instagram
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The Tech, Travel, and Twang Podcast is hosted by Co-Founders, Kristen Cruz and Jenn Barbee with Destination Innovate. Learn More! https://destinationinnovate.com/about/
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Well, hey there, welcome back to Tech Travel and Twang. I'm your host, jen Barbie, and my co-host, kristen Cruz, is with me this morning. Hello, kristen. Good morning, jen Barbie. I'm so excited about today's episode. I'm super excited. Yeah. Without further ado, our special guest today is Rachel Covello from Outcoastcom. Publisher. Hey.
Speaker 2:Rachel, how are you? Hi ladies, how are you? Good morning, good morning.
Speaker 1:Well, we are so excited to talk to you today about all the chatter going on the tourism industry. But first I'd love if you could just talk to us and our listeners about your background. What brought you here? Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:So I've been working in the LGBTQ space for probably over a decade now. My work started back in Pennsylvania. I lived in the suburbs of Philly and had launched an LGBTQ nonprofit organization. We hosted a suburban pride event out in Chester County and I then worked with a large manufacturing company to help them roll out an LGBTQ employee resource group Also did some content at the time while I was up there.
Speaker 2:When I came to Florida really wanted to create this platform that shared the stories of our community that weren't being shared and, as luck would have it, the year I moved here and started Outcoast, the IGLTA, the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association, was hosting their tourism convention right in St Petersburg, florida. I was lucky enough to go and join them, not only as a local new media but also as the photographer. I was doing photography at conventions at the time and they brought me on board to do photos. I then, for the next three years, traveled with them to their different conventions and got to know many people in the tourism industry across the globe as I was growing and launching OutKost to what it is today. I don't do convention photography anymore, I don't have the time to do it and my time is really now spent amplifying the inclusive stories of destinations, not just in Florida anymore but across the country. But definitely we have a heavy focus in Florida and making sure that there are welcoming and inclusive spaces promoted through our content.
Speaker 3:I love that. That's such a unique and different entry into the industry. You know, doing all of that travel and taking the photos for conventions and things like that. That's a unique one. It's really interesting.
Speaker 2:It was a very organic journey.
Speaker 2:My background is more corporate sales and I had gone on a little sidetrack career path.
Speaker 2:After losing a ton of weight, I actually went back to school, have a degree in nutrition and was not finding my space in that Like I just I think in a way I did that for me and my own health and wellbeing and so I was looking for more and really was a fat on myself in a very like miserable place one day and sat down and it sounds cheesy, but I wrote the word happiness list at the top of my piece of paper and wrote down things that I love to do and really just started one by one doing things on that list and that it just became an extremely organic journey that led me to do what I'm doing today and I find so much purpose in what I do and I have so much passion around what I do that I'm beyond grateful that. You know the universe led me in this direction to really both support our community but also help work with destinations and tourism leaders to educate them on how to do better to welcome our travelers.
Speaker 1:I love that and I don't find that cheesy at all. I think that's why why we ended up talking in bumper stickers is because it does simplify our emotions to get us concentrated. So I love the happiness list and I'm so glad that happiness list brought you to us to talk about the issues today and what happened a couple of weeks ago in Florida. I know that must have kind of thrown you for a little bit of a. I mean, I knew you knew it was coming, but can you give us a little context for our listeners about what happened in Florida?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So a little background on my work with Florida. When we started Outcoast, we were, like I said, tampa focused. We were sharing stories of the LGBT community and then, after meeting a lot of people through IGLTA, we pivoted more to tourism focused and our focus really was kind of Crystal River down to Naples, really that Tampa Bay region, larger region, but there was always a dream to do statewide. And so when COVID happened although it sounds like it would make no sense to expand from a tourism perspective for us, it was a perfect time to expand and we wound up launching our statewide platform. Pride events were canceled around the state.
Speaker 2:I had extra time on my hands because this happened right before, like right around that May June time and went statewide. So when we were doing that, we reached out to destinations. At that time we were not working with DMOs and so we reached out to destinations across the state who would normally advertise outside of Florida to get travelers to Florida, and we're now looking at road trip opportunities. So during this time when we launched and it was just a very good time for us to do so we started reaching out to Visit Florida to see what opportunities there were there as well, and I had a dear friend at the time that was working with Visit Florida and was very passionate about supporting the work that we were doing, and so we had. We joined as a member of Visit Florida. We then worked with their content team around 2021 to start highlighting some of the road trip content that we had started creating, both in video and editorial format that they were sharing from their site to our site. They also had their own landing page with other content on it from other influencers that they had both worked with to create content for them, as well as links that they were just linking out to some of those partner sites. So I knew that the landing page was there. I had worked with them on it. To a certain degree we were just establishing that relationship, I would say around 2022,.
Speaker 2:We kind of saw this shift. Partly I went through my own battle with COVID in 2021, which kind of put some of my things a little on hold, but I also just saw this withdraw from engagement on collaborating more. So we stayed in touch every now and then. I did go to the Governor's Convention in 2021. I spoke at their conference on LGBTQ tourism in a breakout session and then, you know, tried to touch base with them when we launched our statewide Florida LGBT tourism convention. We did launch last year in Tampa and I believe we did have one representative from Visit Florida attend. We did not see that this year. Have one representative from Visit Florida attend. We did not see that this year. But given the way that politics have gone in Florida, I wasn't surprised by the withdrawal of attendance.
Speaker 2:I was at the Destinations International Conference in Tampa several weeks ago I want to say it was probably almost two months ago at this point and noticed that I went to go show someone some of the content that we had linking from visit Florida's landing page and I noticed the landing page was gone. Um, and it was a little shocking cause I'm like wait a minute, I know it was here, and then I also and on the desktop version you can't see links anywhere Um, but I could still see that they had Hispanic content, african American content and other segments like accessibility, et cetera, even military, and I was like this is so strange. And so I did reach out via email to the contact that I worked with in 2021, no response. I asked a couple of other team members with Visit Florida hey, what's going on, no response. No one seemed to have answers or they kind of pointed fingers in other directions and I just I, you know, I let it sit with me because we were about to host our own convention, so I had to focus on that. But after not getting answers for almost three weeks, I thought we need to figure out what's happening here, because this is, you know, when these things happen silently, it's usually something fishy and something that's not right. And so I didn't know. You know, I could have continued asking. I bet I would not have gotten any answers.
Speaker 2:So I reached out to a colleague of mine that I'd met at the National Gay and Lesbian Journal Association Journalist Association many years ago through NBC and said hey, do you want to help me do some digging? And that's where this whole story broke. I was actually honestly surprised how quickly they took the story and ran with it. And then the stories that have followed have really kind of blown my mind. I mean, I've lost track of how many articles are out there now on this topic, and then I figured it would have some type of ripple.
Speaker 2:I mean, the original goal was to get tourism leaders and destinations to hold Visit Florida accountable for this content missing. I am not pro-boycott, I am not pro-travel advisory. I think it's important to advise people on you know, if they're moving here, on the laws and healthcare and everything that they might be challenged with when they live here. But I am not a fan of boycotting destinations because typically the destinations that get boycotted are the ones that are already doing the right thing, like the St Pete's, the Tampa's, the Lauderdale's of the world, miami, et cetera. So it was really more wanting these destinations to say speak up like get Visit Florida to answer this question. And if they're not, is there some pushback or some leverage? You have to make sure that they do put this content back on their site Because their job is to represent the diversity in our state.
Speaker 2:When the media got involved, obviously you know Dana Young was bombarded with emails and calls and questions and eventually, at the Florida Governor's Conference on Tourism, at the board meeting that they hosted prior to the conference, which I did attend and I did not speak at, we actually decided that it would be better, coming from a Visit Florida prior board member and a restaurant owner in the industry and someone who was more involved with tourism. So Marianne Farrant got up to ask the question on where it went and she could have not answered. She did choose to answer, but I think she realized that the questions were going to continue and it was a very unempathetic, canned written response, basically saying that the state has to, you know, visit Florida represents the quote unquote taxpayers in the state, which obviously she meant taxpayers that voted for our current administration um, and that the content had to align with the state and, um, you know, I'm I know there's more of a story there than we're getting.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately yeah, and unfortunately no one's coming forward to share the full story, although we all kind of have an idea of what's going on and what did happen.
Speaker 1:But that's when I heard about. It is when you know it came up with the news and what her statement was, and all I heard was not it. You know, and I've heard not it so many times over the decades we've been involved with destinations, and it just shouldn't be a political decision at all.
Speaker 2:Well, and even if you think about it, I mean I have many Republican friends in my life. I don't. I'm not one of those that blocks relationships or friendships with people who don't see eye to eye with me. I like to have conversation, I like to have intellectual debate and dive deeper into where we all come from. We both have different backgrounds. We all have different backgrounds that bring us to the beliefs and the way we vote. I mean, but when? But even my Republican friends have said well, business sense wise. That just doesn't make sense.
Speaker 2:I mean, if you know that this is a high income demographic, we know that segmentation marketing has worked for years. We have different needs and events that we go to. When I'm looking for safe spaces, especially if I'm doing solo travel, I love hanging out with lesbian friends in different destinations. I know I have a safe space in those spaces. I love going to Women Fest in Key West or some of these, and I'm not always a big pride party person myself, but definitely like to know that they host them in these destinations.
Speaker 2:And so to not have any of this type of content on a statewide platform, it really not only does a disservice to our own community but more importantly, it does a huge disservice and hurts the revenue of destinations that rely on this type of this traffic. St Pete Pride alone pulls in 66 million dollars in tourism revenues. Miami Beach Pride has done studies where when travelers go to these events, they don't just stop spending money at the event. Many of them don't have kids, so they continue the party on afterward and spend money at restaurants and they experience culture and go shopping and have a little bit more income to do that. So it really hurts the destinations that are supposed to be represented.
Speaker 3:That is so true. Yeah, and for destinations like Miami you mentioned, for instance, I mean Miami was a client of ours, Well, in a previous agency role back in the early 2000s and we were working at that time on a gay travel focused, lgbtq plus focused microsite, like a boutique microsite, specifically for, yeah, early 2000. So the fact that destinations who've been working down this effort, this initiative, for so many years, are being affected and being kind of pulled into the conversation and the discussion statewide, that's like you said before. I feel like that's that this is where the conversation's now moving right. What are we, what are the destinations within the state who are taking initiative and continuing that journey and pushing the state forward when the state collectively isn't doing that part?
Speaker 2:like the Fort Lauderdales, the Visit Lauderdales of the World, like Stacey Ritter, who loudly speaks up and pushes back and does so in a proud allyship way, and she should be commended for that. And then I also think there's other destinations that say, ok, we don't want to be as loud and vocal politically about this, but we are going to amplify our inclusion efforts and we're going to make sure inclusion efforts and we're going to make sure that travelers know that we're inclusive. So we might not just do it in June anymore, we might do it more strategically throughout the year. And this is what you're starting to find, with the states that are saying, hey, what Visit Florida did was not the right thing, that we're going to be proud. Now we go into October. It's not Pride Month, but it is LGBTQ History Month. It is National Coming Out Day takes place in October, and so you're seeing states like Illinois and Connecticut and even the governor of Colorado speak up now, which it's good to speak up in months that are branded LGBTQ.
Speaker 1:And a lot of those destinations really rely on we're coming up on, not just those pieces of the shoulder season where kids are back at school. So it's always double income, no kids. It's always banks. And you know, the best double income no kids segment that spends more, that's more respectful of the destination, is the LGBTQIA plus of the destination is the LGBTQIA+ 100%, and you're also finding, too, in the LGBT community.
Speaker 2:A couple of things that are really important to think about from a data perspective is one the Gen Z community that a lot of these destinations are going after are identified 20 to 25% within the LGBTQ spectrum. They don't look at the world as binary anymore. They don't look at the world as binary anymore. They don't look at the world as black and white, they look at the world as a fluid spectrum. And so if you're admitting this market in your marketing efforts, or this demographic in your marketing effort, and not thinking five, 10 years from now, you're branding your destination as a place for older people and not the Gen Z community, and not to mention their allies. You know, I know many allies that won't come to Florida right now because of what's happening politically and with the laws, and whether the, you know, leadership changes in two years in a blue way or stays red, you're still branding yourself in a certain way that these kids will never forget what's happening on that national level. So it's really important to think about that. The other thing is these Gen Z populations although right now many are still that double income, no kid, even people in their thirties. We are finding that there are. They're looking at families. Now they're looking at families just like you know anyone else would they're. They're having kids later, just like the general population, but now you're looking at families just like you know anyone else would. They're having kids later, just like the general population. But now you're looking at LGBTQ families two working individuals, kids taking family vacations. And, more so than ever, when you have an LGBTQ couple with kids or a straight couple with kids that are LGBTQ, they're strategically looking for welcoming places for their families. Their families feel safe, especially trans kids and trans adults. So making sure that there are spaces for for this part of our community is really important.
Speaker 2:And again, if you're, it's one thing. If you don't have a page, I'm not promoting that. I think everyone should be thinking about their LGBT demographic and content, but there are Southern states and other places that don't have enough that they know of to offer and it's smarter for them to work with micro influencers like myself, or influencers or content creators to create content on their own platforms versus the state platform or the destination platform, and that makes sense in some cases. But if you've strategically, over several years, created a landing page for a demographic and then intentionally but secretively removed it. Right, that is a strong, strong statement, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were potentially other landing pages that they were wanting to remove.
Speaker 2:And maybe the LGBT one was just the sacrificial rainbow lamb. I don't know all the details. There's been some talk about that, but no one's come out to confirm that. But something to think about as well, that the intention might have been bigger, but it's definitely something going on behind the scenes For sure for sure, and I love what you said about the safety aspect of it too and it growing into families.
Speaker 1:So, as you're talking to more destinations, what would be one to two pieces of advice you give to? Let's say, I love the example of that Southern destination where it's a different reality than what they can maybe market or advertise. What are one or two pieces of advice you might give them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I look at it like this when I go into Southern destinations, southern states or destinations that don't know how to dip their toes into the rainbow river let's say I like to call it that Then I probably would look for another saying I use a lot. That I really like is looking for the rainbow gems in a sea of red. So are there little inclusive spaces and places that you can highlight? Whether it's through your online site or not, it's more important that you actually just get content out there on those businesses. The last thing you want to do is create content that shares a very different message than what the traveler will experience while in the area. So if, all of a sudden, you've gone bold and you're like, hey, alabama is an inclusive place for LGBTQ people and there's not a lot I mean, they do pride events in Alabama, for sure, but it might be smarter in destinations like that to partner with content creators that can start creating the impact and going into these destinations to learn more and really bring out the inclusive stories that are there through their own platforms and we find in destinations. You know, I've worked with destinations like Discover Crystal River, where it's definitely not an LGBT marketed destination. But we've done content where we're just now seeing some of the LGBT owned businesses there feel safe enough to share that they're LGBT owned because we've been there enough times, where we make them feel like, hey, you're not alone in this state or in this destination and it really is that ripple effect. That's exactly what happened when I had my pride event out in Phoenixville, pennsylvania. I mean, it was already somewhat inclusive, but we now have a rainbow crosswalk there. We've got rainbow stickers in every window we have and this is 10 years later. So the ripple, the things that you do now really create that ripple effect for a long-term and that definitely can happen in Southern states, in some of those Northern states that are proud, loud and inclusive. Be proud, loud and inclusive and do it all year long, not just in the months that we wave rainbows.
Speaker 2:And make sure that you're also doing so with different perspectives. Not just. You know, traditionally LGBTQ marketing has been done by gay men. It's not just you know. Traditionally LGBTQ marketing has been done by gay men. You know. Make sure that you're including trans voices and perspectives.
Speaker 2:Women you know I represent one demographic within our broader LGBTQ spectrum. You know I am a cisgender female. I am definitely a little bit more on the feminine side of the lesbian spectrum. I'm 44. I am definitely a little bit more on the feminine side of the lesbian spectrum. I'm 44. I publicly identify, you know I'm a little bit more on that queer spectrum because I identify as both within the lesbian and bisexual communities. But I'm one demographic.
Speaker 2:So when we create content with partners, when it's not my own channel under, like Rachel Covello, when I'm working with partners, we, throughout Coast, we bring in diverse people in the content with me. So I'm not always traveling solo. I'm bringing friends out who might be Black or older or younger, trans, to make sure that I get their perspectives too. So again, southern states, to summarize, southern states, look for what you can highlight and do it with those influencers and content creators that can help pull that out. Or the local share, the local stories those are so powerful. And then, on the, with the inclusive destinations, go loud and proud all year long and do so strategically.
Speaker 3:Great advice, yeah, and being I'm actually here in Texas and Jen's in Arizona, but from a Texas perspective, just kind of going through the list of states that are including information and are kind information out there. So I think this also gets these states who haven't really put the time and effort and thought into collectively as a state what they're doing. The wheels are turning now. I think the conversation has really sparked some ideas and some thoughts and some okay, we've got to take some initiative. So I think this is it's amazing for those states. Ok, we've got to take some initiative. So I think this is it's amazing for those states.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and one of the things we've been doing on OutKost, as we've been launching state nationally, is we've been creating these statewide pride guides. So we've done pride guides for North Carolina, georgia, some of these states, some that are very inclusive and some that might not have that same reputation, and that is one of the things that really sparked some conversation with Illinois. I don't want to go into details yet on some of the ideas that that Illinois has or that we've had conversations with them on, but I think one of the things that did come up that I don't think they would shy away from sharing is Illinois in general is. You know? It's another state that's interesting. It has a lot of inclusive destination. Chicago is definitely one of the gayest, most inclusive places to visit, but sometimes the states don't realize how many events they have in different small towns throughout their state and really trying to dive deeper into some of these other destinations is really important, because I'm not a city girl. I will go to cities, I grew up near cities, but I always grew up in the suburbs, close to country and that's where I feel most comfortable. So if you're only highlighting a big destination like a Chicago or a New York city or a Philly, I'm probably not going to care as much about your content. If you're showing me that small town, I like to call it small town, us gay. If you're showing me that there's a small town, us gay, I like to call it small town, us gay. If you're showing me that there's a small town, us gay destination that has a little mom and pop shop or mom and mom shop, um, that you know is LGBTQ owned, I'm probably going there. I'm probably going to go check out those spaces.
Speaker 2:I love small town parades. I I like them over big big city parades. So if I know that, you know this small town has a parade I mean I've been to, like Christmas parade in Chokoloskee, florida, which is like south of Naples and Marco Island. It was so small they had to circle twice like that, those small town experiences, and so to be able to find pride events or events like even in Amelia Island they have a shrimp festival. Well, the um, the Fernandino um pride group up there actually marches in the shrimp festival and I got to do that with them. So and it's a very different experience than a big corporate branded um parade.
Speaker 2:So I think it's really important that destinations think outside of their big cities for inclusion that they think about. Where are the small towns that also have inclusive events? And how can we make, how can we amplify those stories so that those of us who are not looking for city life, or maybe some of those that can't afford a city life living and need to look at country or suburbia, have opportunity to do that, and that's safe. That's so smart. Yeah, really. Accommodations too, you know and that's it, that's right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, really, accommodations, too. You know that that's something destinations need to be thinking about. Is, you know, marking the accommodations that feel safe and friendly? Especially with short-term rentals having that rise, you know you can end up in a neighborhood that you're not exactly aware of, so that, to me, is another opportunity for communication short-term rentals are huge in our community and mostly because it provides the privacy that we don't necessarily have at a hotel.
Speaker 2:So we don't and you find this a lot very much trending in the gay male community where they, like you know, many like to travel to hotels and have no issue. But there are some that they don't want to be looked at in certain destinations. They don't want to feel like they have to look over their shoulder and so being in a vacation rental property short term, where they're in a neighborhood and it's not like a big crowded hotel, sometimes feels a little safer, especially if they're traveling with a group of friends and they want to look for that house or the pool, that they can just be themselves and not worry about sharing those pool spaces with families or others that might judge their who they are. It's definitely a growing industry and that's why you have platforms like Fabstays or Mr B&B or some of those platforms really taking off is because we're looking for some of those inclusive spaces.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Those are great tips. So now I'm so glad we've talked from the beginning that the universe brought you kind of on this different trail to tourism, but we're so glad you're here and through this work, are you now consulting directly with destinations? Like how can they find you if they're like help Rachel, we don't know if we're ready for this, but we need to have a conversation.
Speaker 2:So I work in a few different ways. One, as mentioned, I consider myself a micro influencer, so kind of the micro influencer that under a hundred thousand followers I have various platforms, not just Instagram. So I have a lot of reach on Facebook, especially personally, in LinkedIn of course, and we're there. Lgbtq people with money and traveling are on those platforms still, so they can definitely reach. So we work on content. I love doing full format videos. We do short form as well, because they're super popular, but I love doing the full format videos that really get an opportunity to share the stories in a more in-depth way on these destinations. I've done many all over Florida. I would love to many all over Florida. I would love to do more beyond Florida.
Speaker 2:We also can partner with destinations that want to put content on their channels but they're not ready fully to go full blast with, like a landing page or a lot of content. So what we'll do in those cases is we'll create content for our own channel and then do a little bit for theirs. That kind of fits the narrative that they want on their platform. In other cases, we can definitely consult with destinations, tourism leaders, hoteliers on attractions, on both doing training for staff for the marketing teams, and I think it's important to emphasize that. It's great to have training on the marketing level, but if everybody within that business is not trained, then it falls flat, because you can market something as inclusive, but then they get to the front desk and it's not the same experience as what's being right, I think.
Speaker 2:Training in general and tourism um, we can definitely do trainings and then we can work with States on, or regions on, building out LGBTQ landing pages and what that content should look like and really kind of doing an analysis on what their destination offers, even getting in there and traveling to their destinations to experience it for ourselves and say, okay, here's what I think is really special about your destination that you can highlight to our travelers, to do it in a very authentic and natural way versus just hey, we've got rainbows, come to our destination. So if people want to reach out, you can definitely find you Google, rachel Covello, I know you can find me. I'm. I'm the only Rachel Covello apparently I've ever found on Google.
Speaker 2:So I'm easy to find, but you can email me at Rachel at out coast Make sure it's coast C? O A S Tcom. And then if you go to outcoastconsultingcom, that's also a great way just to get a little bit more information about what we do. And then, of course, outcoastcom is our is our content platform. So if you want to see examples of what we've done, that's, that's the best place for that information Wonderful In our description down below.
Speaker 1:We'll make sure to have all the ways to contact. There are plenty. There are plenty. Message me on Instagram, Facebook. I will respond. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate the education for us and for our audience today. I know we got a little hot under the collar about the whole thing, so we wanted to have an opportunity to have an authentic conversation.
Speaker 2:I appreciate it. Thank you so much for amplifying the voices of our community, because that's the best thing anyone can do is amplify the voices, and let us be heard and seen in both marketing as well as these discussions.
Speaker 1:Our pleasure, Rachel. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3:Thanks, rachel.
Speaker 1:Okay.
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