In 2017, our team began an effort at AIG Travel to bring attention to the safety and health risks which LGBTQ individuals face while traveling.

This initiative began strictly as internal research, in order to build an employee knowledge base and resource center on how staff should assist LGBTQ clients who encounter unique situations while traveling. During the course of the year, we facilitated focus group sessions with well-traveled LGBTQ individuals, conducted internal sensitivity trainings and audited our case management processes. In these efforts, it quickly became apparent that while all travelers face some risk, LGBTQ travelers face particularly unique risks.

Not only was it our obligation to understand how we could assist our LGBTQ clients, but it was equally our responsibility to help communicate those risks and how to mitigate them to all LGBTQ travelers.

We engaged subject matter experts and partnered with organizations specializing in LGBTQ travel safety to develop travel safety resources and guidance. From this our team produced internal trainings, distributable marketing collateral and an online resource center. All of these resources were readied for distribution through conferences, community events, and a digital and editorial advertisement campaign. In June 2018, we officially launched our Travel with Pride campaign and have consistently relaunched the campaign every year during Pride month.

Being deeply involved with this initiative and brining my personal experiences and perspective to the project has been one my proudest accomplishment at AIG Travel. Our company’s promise to provide a sense of security every moment of every journey is no more evident than in our Travel with Pride campaign. AIG Travel has become a leader in the LGBTQ travel safety space among travel insurance companies and has garnered several awards and recognitions for this work. Our team has gone on to expand the travel safety initiative to include several vulnerable populations of travelers and continues to seek ways to help travelers understand and mitigate their risks while traveling.