A Hidden Gem for LGBTQ Travelers

Ask any LGBTQ traveler in the U.S. to name some popular queer destinations, and chances are that Winnipeg won’t immediately roll off their tongue.

But this Canadian prairie capital, which elected an openly gay mayor way back in 1998, has an intriguing amount of history and attractions relating to the queer community—not to mention a welcoming attitude that seems to be infectious.

We spoke recently with Matt Schaubroeck, Corporate Communications Specialist for Tourism Winnipeg, about what there is to love about this great gay destination.

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TP: Winnipeg has a large, vibrant LGBTQ community, and a fascinating queer history—yet it isn't yet on the radar of many travelers in the U.S. How are you marketing toward the queer community and where are you choosing to do it?

MS: Tourism Winnipeg has been working with partners and stakeholders from across the city for years to ensure that the LGBTQ community is fully welcomed when they come to stay here.

From an internal perspective, that includes a frontline training program through the Manitoba Tourism Education Council for front-line staff at Winnipeg hotels, specifically on how to offer a welcoming LGBTQ environment. We worked with the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA) on our TAG accreditation efforts.

From an external focus, Tourism Winnipeg’s marketing efforts are focused on reaching out to LGBTQ families, with a focus on being welcoming and accessible to all. One thing you won’t find in Winnipeg is a specific “gaybourhood”—our LGBTQ community is integrated throughout the city, which means that LGBTQ tourists can experience all sections of the city.

We’re focusing the majority of our outreach the same way we identify our overall leisure market—a roughly 800-kilometer (500-mile) radius from Winnipeg, about a leisurely day’s drive away. Of course, we also specifically promote LGBTQ-specific events, including Winnipeg Pride and the Reel Pride Film Festival, as well as LGBTQ-owned restaurants and shops (you can read about all these in detail on our website).

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TP: What successes have you had with your LGBTQ marketing aims? Where have you fallen short and had to retool? Any lessons learned?

MS: Our 2017 LGBTQ-specific campaign reached out to the regional Canadian market, as well as the U.S. (Chicago, Minneapolis, Fargo and Grand Forks). This campaign was done in partnership with Travel Manitoba and included social media and print outreach, offering LGBTQ-specific travel packages during the summer of 2017.

The campaign saw thousands of unique visitors to our website and more than 2,800 packages purchased. This also gave us an opportunity to develop LGBTQ-specific photo assets, which we’ve since begun interweaving with our general marketing publications.

When we’re reaching out to the U.S.-based LGBTQ community, we are emphasizing both our national brand of Canada being an inclusive, welcoming, socially progressive country while also raising Winnipeg’s profile as an exciting, four-season destination filled with culture and adventure.

No matter what you’re looking for, Winnipeg has an option for you.

The biggest shortfalls we have seen in our campaign so far are finding enough budget resources to promote this campaign as much as we’d like to, as well as general awareness of Canada as a world-leading tourist attraction (and Winnipeg as a quality destination within that).

TP: The Canadian Museum for Human Rights, an architecturally stunning structure that opened in 2014, must be a huge draw for LGBTQ travelers across Canada, as well as worldwide. How are you working with the museum to expand its draw?

MS: The Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) is one of the most popular tourist attractions in our city. We will often work with them for any hosted travel writers, including LGBTQ-issue focused writers, to curate their museum experience to include the many references to LGBTQ historical struggles, and rights victories.

We also work with the CMHR to promote the venue as a space for meetings, conventions, the travel trade industry and large-scale sporting events. For example, in two years Winnipeg will play host to Fierté Canada | Canada Pride 2020, a triennial event focused on celebrating human rights and freedoms. More than 500 delegates will be coming to Winnipeg during this event, with the CMHR acting as one of the hosts.

TP: Tourism Winnipeg has a great LGBTQ-oriented section of its website—complete with history, where to see, queer attractions, hotel suggestions, and more. When was this first developed and how has it evolved? What sort of feedback have you received from it and do you have any metrics you can share?

MS: Our tourismwinnipeg.com/lgbt website was developed in 2014 as a resource hub to share information specific to LGBTQ tourists. We continue to add new content to the site, including TAG-approved hotels and LGBTQ-proud dining establishments. We’ve seen steady visitation numbers to our website since it launched, with significant viewership spikes during our campaigns.

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TP: How have you worked with local LGBTQ groups to help better promote Winnipeg?

MS: There is an incredible and vocal LGBTQ community in Winnipeg, which includes groups such as Pride Winnipeg, the Rainbow Resource Centre, Winnipeg’s LGBT Chamber of Commerce, and beyond. Tourism Winnipeg actively works with these local communities and partners, often being a catalyst to connect these groups and pool resources and energy together.

We’ve also played a leading role in driving home the importance of LGBTQ-specific work. For example, we’ve encouraged local hotels to become TAG-approved; We reached out directly to these organizations to ask them to lead the way. Our internal goal is to have 70 percent of Winnipeg hotels be TAG certified by the end of 2019.

One new program we are looking at offering is an on-demand, self-guided tour of Winnipeg with an LGBTQ spin, which will showcase Winnipeg’s unique history and acceptance of other cultures and rights, as well as historical facts of Winnipeg’s LGBT journey and other points of interest.