Local Businesses Show Their Support for LGBTQ Community
A welcoming environment is key to keeping customers happy and returning. New Orleans & Company, the city's official sales and marketing organization, knows that acceptance and representation transform a store from good to great. To make shops more inclusive this pride month, New Orleans & Company, in conjunction with the New Orleans LGBTQ Hospitality Alliance (NOLHA), is bringing back their 2019 campaign "Everyone's Welcome Here."
The Campaign
This revived inclusivity campaign provides rainbow flag stickers to participating stores as an act of solidarity and a welcoming notion to LGBTQ customers. While the sticker outwardly shows acceptance of all identities, New Orleans & Company hopes to transform far beyond the storefront with its campaign.
"Everyone's Welcome Here" also includes a training program, ensuring that employees are equipped to make everyone feel welcome and seen. The campaign aims to implement LGBTQ inclusivity not in theory, but in real, day-to-day store operations.
Why is adding a sticker to a window so important? Dustin Woehrmann, President and Creative Director of Communify, a New Orleans strategic marketing agency, and a volunteer leader of the New Orleans LGBTQ Hospitality Alliance, has an answer.
"According to SAP CONCUR, 97 percent of the LGBTQ+ community are worried about their safety and discrimination when traveling. We know New Orleans has always been a welcoming city, so our top priority is making sure LGBTQ+ travelers feel safe, respected, supported and free to be themselves. Displaying an 'Everyone's Welcome Here' sticker at your business is doing exactly that." As Woehmann suggested, inclusion is crucial to hospitality, and the simple act of adding a rainbow flag sticker can transform someone's shopping experience.
About the Organizations
Since 1960, New Orleans & Company has diversified and promoted New Orleans by attracting leisure and cultural travel. The organization is responsible for driving over $10 billion of diverse annual business to the regional cultural economy.
The New Orleans LGBTQ Hospitality Alliance (NOLHA) aims to attract LGBTQ tourism to New Orleans, increase attendance to local events, and unite the New Orleans LGBTQ community and its allies.
"Everyone's Welcome Here"
As New Orleans continues to strive for inclusion, remembering NOLA LGBTQ history is important now more than ever. This year, the city commemorates 50 years since the Upstairs Lounge Fire, a tragedy that forever changed the New Orleans LGBTQ community.
If you are a business owner, add a level of security to everyone's shopping experience by joining the "Everyone's Welcome Here" campaign. Visit the campaign website for more details.
