RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The president of the International LGBTQ+ Tourism Association (IGLA), Felipe Cárdenas, asked Uruguay on Wednesday to lead the transition towards inclusive tourism that is “competitive” at a global level and “contagious” to the rest of Latin America.
This hope was expressed – during an event organized by the Colorado Party (PC, center-right) in the framework of the month of diversity of the South American country – by the Colombian businessman, recently appointed as the first Latin American president of the IGLA.
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Cárdenas, who is also president of the LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce of Colombia, highlighted Uruguay as the “most robust” Latin American country in terms of legislation that contemplates the rights of people of the community but remarked that with this label comes “a great responsibility”.
Along that line, to which he stressed that the country must demonstrate zero tolerance to discrimination in its streets, the Colombian said, in an analogy with soccer, that Uruguay can double the bet and compete with the best destinations in the world in terms of inclusive tourism.
“As it leads every time there is a championship or a tournament, in scenarios where we see the millions of dollars of advertising, of impact when its sky turns blue, analogously (it can) shine in (inclusive) tourism,” he emphasized.
Likewise, he stressed that, as it is one of the few Latin American countries with a safe environment for the LGBTQ+ population and therefore a competitive advantage, Uruguay can “infect” others with its example and do so with the differential of broadening its spectrum of tourists.
“We have to get out of the idea that inclusive tourism is about couples of gay and white men with good bodies (…) we need to start talking more about women, include all this broad spectrum of diversity,” he stressed.
For his part, the president of the LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce of Uruguay, Adrián Ruso, indicated that the country must improve its advertising pieces to encourage members of this community.
In addition, Ruso said that there are talks with the Uruguayan government to promote a law authorizing non-resident foreigners to marry in Uruguay, which would attract many LGBTQ+ couples who cannot do so in their countries and would generate “wedding tourism”.
Cárdenas’ visit to Uruguay was part of the celebration of the Uruguay LGBT Congress 2021 + Summit Pride Connection, which took place in Montevideo on September 21-22.