by Paul Heney
Last updated: 9:00 AM ET, Mon March 16, 2020
The International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA) has announced that its Annual Global Convention, originally scheduled for Milan, Italy from May 6-9, 2020, is being postponed to the Fall.
The association said that it is determined to host its 37th Annual Global Convention in 2020 in Milan.
A statement released from the IGLTA Board of Directors stated, in part:
"There are no more resilient, intrepid and confident travel leaders anywhere in the world than in the International LGBTQ+ Travel Association.
"Therefore, we are determined to host our Annual Global Convention in 2020 in Milan. At the same time, we must be prudent and sensitive to health and safety precautions and to the actual conditions on the ground. We have decided to postpone our convention in Milan until this September/October.
"We believe firmly in the resilience of travel and want to be part of the industry's recovery when COVID-19 has been contained with confidence. We must, however, give all our participants time to prepare."
According to John Tanzella, IGLTA President/CEO, Milan went through a very involved RFP process to win the bid for 2020, so "our focus was always how we could honor our commitment to our selected host city. We want to support tourism recovery in Milan and Italy at large. Our members and partners there have put an enormous amount of effort into bringing IGLTA's convention to Italy for the first time."
Tanzella said that the decision was driven by IGLTA, but colleagues in the Italian government, tourism sector and local LGBTQ+ organizations were part of the discussion throughout the process.
IGLTA had some delegates express concern about traveling to Milan in May, but most of the messages the association received were questioning when we'd make a decision about whether or not to move forward. "We knew that we needed to make the call in a timely manner so our participants could plan accordingly," Tanzella said.
"We analyzed all of the tourism events that engage a significant number of our members to try and avoid overlap as much as possible," he said. "We wanted to avoid the summer season when many of our members run tours and Europe is in holiday mode. And of course, we hope that will be enough time for the coronavirus threat to be under control. It's more likely to be September, based on our negotiations so far."
"We find the schedule of events that IGLTA and our members participate in to be particularly crowded around our traditional convention time, so this might inspire a new convention timeline for the future," explained Tanzella. "Given that so many spring events have canceled rather than rescheduling, there is also the possibility that our fall attendance will benefit from an increased desire for in-person connections."
For more information or updates, please contact [email protected] or visit igltaconvention.org.
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