Lately, the only reason British Airways has been making headlines has been because of their slow descent into bankruptcy. But this time they're making headlines for something else: BA announced that it will be pairing up with the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association.
Richard Tams, the head of Ireland and UK sales for BA, and the European Ambassador of the IGLTA Carlos Kytka have very different views on this partnership.
British Airways says this is their attempt to tap into the "around £80 billion" a year that gay and lesbian travelers spend. They want to "develop" the relationship between the gay community and travel.
The IGLTA selected BA for this partnership because they are a leading airlines, and because they love the gays. They said that BA
"has a long tradition of hospitality to gay and lesbian travellers and of celebrating diversity in its workplace. This partnership is a further sign of the airline’s commitment to this market."
Clearly these two didn't coordinate their statements.
Regardless of the motivations for the partnership, there's more behind it than the words convey. The association with the gay community and travel preys on old stereotypes of the gay community as affluent with extra money for luxury spending.
They cite research from Community Marketing Inc and Osoft Consulting that claim the gay community travels more frequently than "their straight counterparts" and they typically spend more money while on holiday.
Of course a marketing company is going to tell you that you can target one community easily, that's their job. They've been trying to convince companies that you can shape one advertisement and target every single woman in existence. If one advertisement can't possibly target an entire gender, how is an airline's travel partnership going to do the same for an entire community composed of unique individuals?
You don't see Disneyland offering discounted packages for gay families in their commercials: they always feature heterosexual families, and only recently started featuring minority families.
Maybe this partnership will help bring BA out of the red and into the black? Who knows. Either way, it's about more than just travel: it's about preying on old stereotypes rather than taking pride on your equality and diversity.
Does this mean they're going to start painting their planes rainbow?