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The hospitality industry has been marketing the rainbow for a long time.

This applies to both travel and accommodation sectors. Not surprising when you see that LGBT people are considered The Ideal Traveler: they travel more often, stay longer, spend more and often travel outside the high season. Parties such as Airbnb and Booking are participating well, both quantitatively and qualitatively – although not for very long. Attention has been paid for a long time by the old hands in this profession, the large hotel chains such as Marriott, their subsidiary W and also Kimpton and Hilton (more about this later).

Here’s a look inside the Marriott kitchen. A striking detail is the Mormon – or more correctly ‘The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ – background of this behemoth.

The market

The size of the global leisure travel market was estimated at over $1 trillion in 2019 and is expected to reach $1,737 billion by 2027. Of this volume, LGBT travelers account for 13%, while they only make up about 5-8% of the population.

The ‘stay’ segment represents relatively the largest share of all this expenditure and is expected to maintain its dominance over the next five years. Hotels, and especially hotel chains, long ago focused on the rainbow customer (as usual, mainly on the visible and economically stronger L and H). In addition to being a destination for stays, hotels have also often specifically offered themselves as locations for weddings and honeymoons, especially since 2015 (read: ‘gay marriage’ in the US).

Marriott

Marriott International is an American hospitality company that operates a broad portfolio of hotels and related lodging facilities. The company was founded in 1927 by J. Willard Marriott and is now led by its fourth CEO, Anthony Capuano following the retirement of the founder’s son, Executive Chairman Bill Marriott in 2012 (who with his 11% stake held almost 2, 5 billion) and the untimely death in 2021 of Arne Sorenson. Sorenson was the third CEO in Marriott history, and after 85 years, the first without Marriott as a last name. He was a strong ally of the LGBT community, and also openly spoke out against anti-LGBT legislation in several states.

There are four white men in a row, so that’s certainly not where the diversity lies.

The company has more than 8,700 locations in 139 countries across 31 brands, more than 1.48 million rooms and another 485,000 in the pipeline. They are market leaders and as such they are seen as a role model.

The group also includes chains such as Sheraton, Westin, Meridien, Renaissance, and Ritz-Carlton. This article is only about the Marriott brand.

Long known for its diversity outreach, Marriott was consistently recommended in the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) annual Buying for Equality guide. They received their tenth 100% score in a row from them in 2023.

Their overarching loyalty program Bonvoy plays an important role in their communications, as does Marketing the Rainbow.

The beginning of the rainbow and LGBT partnerships

Before Marriott started rainbow marketing, they took a number of steps to demonstrate their good intentions. In the late 1990s, they began offering benefits to the same-sex partners of their American employees.

In addition, in addition to the HRC, they have been working with several LGBT organizations for a long time, such as the International LGBT+ Travel Association (IGLTA), PFLAG, National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) and the National Center for Lesbian Rights. In addition, also with other minority organizations such as Immigration Equality en National Center for Black Equity. They mean business!

Marriott not only pledged loyalty to LGBT employees and customers: after becoming a corporate member of the NGLCC in April 2007, they announced plans to increase purchasing from (certified) LGBT suppliers by 15% over the next two years. They said they had spent about $400 million the year before on “diversity suppliers” (including companies majority-owned by women or ethnic minorities), building on a strategy drawn up in 2005. Mike Tobolski, senior director of diversity initiatives at Marriott, said, “We plan to build on our company’s success in the U.S. and expand our program to foster relationships internationally and within the LGBT community.”

That purchasing from minority companies is important for your Supply Chain Management (SCM), your marketing activities and for your bottom line. Read more about this in  Why you need a supplier diversity program.

Mormon

An insider noted, “This is a major achievement for us as a company, given Mr. Marriott’s Mormon background and the attitudes of many shareholders.” People wondered how Bill Marriott put aside his Mormon beliefs, well… to cash in on the LGBT travel market (estimated at $200 billion a year in the US alone). Is it pinkwashing? I can answer that with no. They do this with sincere attention and communications.

Bill Marriott told Businessweek in 2012, “Our church is very anti-alcohol and we are probably one of the largest sellers of liquor in the United States. I do not drink. We serve a lot of spirits. You are in business. You have to make money. We need to appeal to the masses, whatever their beliefs.”

In fact, Bill Marriott had been a silent supporter of LGBT rights for more than 25 years. He blogged: “Marriott International is a publicly traded company and is not controlled by any individual or family. The Bible I love teaches me about honesty, integrity, and unconditional love for all people. But beyond that, I am very careful to separate my personal faith and beliefs from how we run our business… We embrace all people as our customers, employees, owners and franchisees, regardless of race, gender, gender identity or sexual orientation.”

And it is indeed businesslike: in 2012 the Marriott hotel in Chicago even hosted the ‘International Mr. Leather Competition’, not just any event. Since much earlier (at least 2003), the Marriott Marquis organized the annual GLAAD Media Awards.

Nice picture, but it is striking that the same photo of these ladies has also been used by Avis, for example.

Vocal about diversity

Marriott opposed California’s Proposition 8, which banned “gay marriage” — and even refused to donate to the Mormon Church’s campaign in favor of Prop 8. Instead, he waded into the drama by publicly declaring his company’s commitment to gay rights to strengthen through partner benefits and services aimed at L & H couples.

They were one of the first companies to join the HRC campaign calling for the repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). CEO Sorensen stated in June 2013: “Marriott takes seriously its obligations as a community leader when it comes to standing with the LGBT community as true allies in equality. It is fitting that at the end of a month of commemorating the history of progress within the LGBT community, we receive the message that DOMA will also become just that: history. We say Bravo!’

In 2016, Sorenson, in no uncertain terms, joined the chorus of business leaders who spoke out against the sudden increase in so-called religious freedom laws (led by then-governor of Indiana, ghastly figurehead Mike Pence, see also my article ‘How Pence destroyed Indiana‘). The legislation in Indiana — and there are bills being considered in other states as well — is not only sheer idiocy from a business perspective, which it certainly is,” Sorenson said, “but the idea that you can tell companies to to be somehow free to discriminate against people based on who they are is madness.”

Online visibility

In 2010, Marriott launched a dedicated LGBT section of their website, stating: For years, we’re proud to say that Marriott was one of the first hotel companies to offer equal benefits to same-sex couples, earning us top marks on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index.’

The website lists Pride festivals and a wedding section with programs for ceremonies, honeymoons, events and testimonials. There are also tips for destinations in, for example, the Caribbean, Rio and Puerto Rico. Also interesting is the article about ‘7 Things LGBT Travelers Are Sick of Hearing‘.

Next week: Be You, With Us, #LoveTravels, weddings and the Gay Games.

Alfred Verhoeven is a marketer and is in the final phase of his PhD research Marketing the Rainbow.
He previously wrote for ILOVEGAY about Super Bowl Ads: What Would Jesus Do?, Zalando’s journey from activism to size-inclusive shoes, Zalando goes from controversies to hidden stories, Get woke, go broke, Spain has 6.8 billion reasons to love rainbow tourists, How Spain markets itself as rainbow destination, Everyone’s gay in Amsterdam, I Amsterdam, Gay Capital, The Ideal Traveler, Diversity & Language, Playing with Pronouns, Abercrombie & Fitch : The Rise & The Fall, Play the gayme: about SIMS and Candy Crush, Diversity in Toys, LEGO does the rainbow, Barbiemania, Bud Light and the 4 bln dollar woman, Dutch retailer HEMA loves everybody, Pronouns, About those rainbows, Alphabet soup, M&M’s and the lesbian invasion, Magnum and the lesbian wedding, Marketing the Rainbow: the process and all that came before it, Sport and (un)sportmanship,  Why you need a supplier diversity program, BeNeLux LGBTIQ+ Business Chamber (BGLBC), From B2C and B2B to B2G and G2G (oh, and G2C), The Men from Atlantis, The other kind of cruising, Booking.com, Home Deco, Haters and trolls: the ‘letter to the editor’ of the 21st century, 5 Bizarre LGBT Videos, TRANSparency, Transgender persons as a target group, Matchmaking, 5 videos that went viral, From Representation To Respect, Cultural sensitivities and social involvement in marketing, 4 reasons to practice diversity and The Rules of Market Segmentation.