Ed Salvato Promotes Travel Safety for the LGTB Community

Ed Salvato, Chief Content Officer of ManAboutWorld gay travel magazine, helps others travel safely to gay-welcoming destinations around the globe.

Ed is an active member of our Travel Massive New York community and has an excellent understanding about what it takes to ensure safety in the LGBT communities across the world.

Any important topic regardless of where you are in the world, so, we asked him a few questions.

Ed, tell us more about your role in the LGBT community.

Homosexuality is criminalized in 76 or more countries (source: 76 Crimes). Any LGBT visitor has to understand both the law and the reality on the ground for these destinations. I speak and write often about LGBT and I’ve partnered with leading organizations who are also interested in LGBT travel safety including the US State Department, Human Rights Watch, OutRight international and others. I’ve also spoken about LGBT travel safety at a number of mainstream conferences starting with the International Law Enforcement Conference in April 2014. I have also spoken directly to consumers at travel shows for 10 years including my annual LGBT travel panel at the NY Times Travel Show. [I’ve included a photo relating to this.]

What inspired you to create this initiative?

There is information about LGBT travel safety out there in the public domain, but LGBT travelers may not be aware of it. I try to use my connections, experience in the industry and leadership position to bridge the gap between the information that’s available and LGBT travelers.

When we are on vacation, we choose where to go. When we travel for business, we usually don’t have a choice of where we go. This can include a country hostile to gay rights. With these travelers in mind, we also produced the LGBT Guide to Business Travel, the first of its kind, free to everyone who downloads our app.

What has been your biggest success or accomplishment?

I organized a social activation that was the biggest of its kind on this important topic. I brought together the US State Department, Human Rights Watch, the TSA, the CDC, OutRight Action International and several other global organizations to discuss LGBT travel safety during a Twitter chat on December 6, 2016. The half-hour chat reached over 3.2 million accounts and generated more than 16 million impressions. It was the largest Twitter chat the US State Department ever participated in.

Additionally, I organize an annual auction for OutRight Action International to help LGBT activists in gay-unfriendly countries (like Uganda). Last year’s auction raised nearly $25,000.

What has been your biggest challenge?

One of the biggest challenges is getting countries where homosexuality is criminalized or marginalized to participate in these discussions. Ironically, many of these destinations want to attract the ‘lucrative’ gay travel segment without acknowledging the important fact that their countries legally criminalize homosexual behaviors.

Do you have any tips for aspiring do-gooders who want to create their own social project?

Just keep at it. Start small and build from there. Our company is small without many resources to invest in these important initiatives so I found deep-pocketed partners who have resources that I can tap into and who are, in turn, looking for someone like me who is an expert in the field and who has many contacts to bring together around such an important subject.

Leverage what you have (contacts, credibility, energy/enthusiasm) and seek out what you don’t have (social media platforms and other resources) in other organizations to partner with.

Travel Start-Up is a monthly series that profiles unique online travel start-ups in the Travel Massive community around the world. You can connect with Ed Salvato on Travel Massive, Facebook, and Twitter.