In 1983, the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA) began with just a handful of LGBT travel agents and hotel owners. Their goal then was to provide community members with information about friendly and affirming travel destinations and options. A testament to their work is the dramatic increase they've seen in LGBT-friendly travel across the globe. Today, they have partners and connections in more than 75 countries.

"The growth has really been tremendous," says LoAnn Halden, IGLTA's media relations director. "Certainly, there's been more focus on LGBT travel in the last 10 years and in the last five years it has increased dramatically. We are finding many more LGBT-friendly destinations. We've been having conversations with more than 100 tourism boards, either at the country level or city level."

Concerns about safe and friendly travel are particularly important for LGBT people. And, that's as much true for international travel as it is domestically. "For LGBT travelers, the most important thing is you want to be traveling in a way that makes you feel safe and welcome, whether choice of travel that might be," says Halden.

Authored By Matt Comer - See the Full Story at QNotes

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