The Tourism and Hospitality Management Division (THM) hosted a talk on February 7, 2023 at Aditayathorn Building entitled “An Introduction to the LGBTQ+ Market and Designing LGBTQ+ Inclusive Servicescape.” The speaker was Dr. Bella Vongvisitsin, who is a co-founder of LGBTQ+ Tourism Asia, a Business Development Manager at Artanis Technology, and a post-doctoral researcher at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management of Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

The topics discussed included the history of the LGBTQ+ movement, gender inclusion and diversity, introduction to LGBTQ+ markets, how organizations in Hong Kong are promoting LGBTQ+ inclusion, and how service providers can design LGBTQ+ inclusive service experience.

This guest speaker session was arranged as part of the subject ICTB304 Service Management & Experiential Design (taught by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Walanchalee Wattanacharoensil) and aimed at raising awareness about gender diversity and social inclusion, and mitigating potential barriers of discrimination that could arise in public and hospitality workspaces. The talk also provided specific knowledge on the LGBTQ+ segment with regards to creating inclusive service environments and designing physical and social servicescape for the LGBTQ+ segment.

This activity was arranged in response to the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism and UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG5) on Gender Equality.