Members of the Philadelphia Gay Tourism Caucus convened earlier this month for their annual meeting, during which they discussed the organization’s progress and goals and chose new leaders to help steer the agency into the new year.
There were six open spaces on the board, and the organization received six nominees, all of whom were approved by the nearly 50 PGTC members present during the Nov. 19 meeting.
The PGTC’s new board members are Russell Kice, director of sales and marketing at the Pennsylvania Convention Center; Demetrio Celaya, front office manager at Hotel Palomar; Jim Evans, innkeeper at The Independent Hotel; Joey Conicella of Philadelphia Magazine; Tony Geistwite of Sofitel Philadelphia; and Desiree Hines, organizer of the GLBT Arts Festival.
Tami Sortman, PGTC president, said the new additions, who bring the total board membership to 20, bring a diverse set of interests and backgrounds to the organization.
“We haven’t had any hotel members on the board for the past year, so we’re pretty excited to have three hotel representatives moving forward,” Sortman said. “And we now have the most diverse board we’ve ever had — straight, gay, transgender, Hispanic, black, white — it really runs the spectrum, which is really, really nice to have.”
In addition to the election, PGTC updated its members on the organization’s continued successes over the past year.
The group has experienced numerous organizational developments, such as joining the Gay & Lesbian Convention and Visitors Bureau and the introduction of designated networking time during its bimonthly meetings.
To reach out to its own membership throughout the year, the agency brought in Tom Roth, president and founder of LGBT market-research agency Community Marketing Inc., for a membership-recruitment event in April and also held a membership event this summer to celebrate the opening of Hotel Palomar.
To continue with its mission of heightening awareness about LGBT tourism among mainstream organizations, PGTC hosted a gay-sensitivity training program at Sesame Place this past summer that demonstrated to about 50 park employees how they can best serve the LGBT families that visit.
Also in the summer, PGTC launched an internship program with Temple University. Two Temple students interned at the agency over the summer and Sortman said at least one more student is set to work with PGTC next semester.
Looking ahead to 2010, PGTC will continue to develop its internship program and plans to expand its sensitivity-training program to ensure that Philadelphia’s hospitality industry is well-equipped to meet the needs of LGBT tourists.
Sortman said the agency will also host more membership events and will not increase membership fees in order to attract and retain the most LGBT and gay-friendly businesses and individuals as possible.
Shortly after the New Year, PGTC will celebrate the launch of its annual Gay-Friendly Merchant Initiative, a book that details the gay-owned and gay-friendly businesses in the area. This year, the book, which is sponsored by Enterprise Rent-A-Car and the Center City District, also gained a new partner: Philadelphia Magazine.
“Philly Mag is taking over the creative side, so they’re designing it and producing it for us,” Sortman said. “They’ll also have links on their Web site for gay-friendly or LGBT merchants, so it’s a really good partnership.”
For more information on PGTC, visit www.philadelphiagaytourism.com.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].