Travel platform Booking.com has paved the way for making travel more accessible and pleasurable to those in the LGBTQ+ community through its Travel Proud program. Travel Proud provides free hospitality and inclusivity training to accommodations and properties around the world to ensure the community feels welcome and joyful during their travels. As part of Booking.com’s commitment to inclusion and diversity, the website has partnered with the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center, a new space in New York City dedicated to both preserving and promoting LGBTQ+ history and culture.
The new visitor center marks the first LGBTQ+ visitor center in the National Park Service and, of course, fittingly opens during Pride Month. The center opens to the public on June 28 and includes rotating programming that showcases stories of LGBTQ+ travelers and an inside peek at the Stonewall riots. Visits to the visitor center will join over 128,000 attractions already available on Booking.com.
To coincide with the opening, Booking.com also conducted research into inclusivity in travel, and its findings show that there is still work to be done when it comes to equality. Over half of American LGBTQ+ travelers still experience discrimination while traveling, and 56 percent prioritize researching a destination’s local legislation regarding equality prior to booking a trip. Luckily, Booking.com isn’t the only company looking to make a difference—other founding partners of the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center include Google, Chase, MLB, and even Christina Aguilera.