TravelMole Interview: Valerie Athans-Papaioannou, co-founder, Travel Divas

Extensive market research shows the $450 billion gay market is largely untapped, says Valerie Athans-Papaioannou, co-founder of Travel Divas. “We feel the gay market is really on the rise and that it has a lot of untapped potential. In recent months, I’ve heard a lot of talk about it, but not much has been done,” she told TravelMole. A former travel agent for her family’s travel company, Ms Athans-Papaioannou teamed with Annette Hogan, a former executive with Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd., to form the Miami-based Travel Divas. The pair will inaugurate its first escorted trip to Greece in May. “What we offer is the best upscale, white glove travel experience possible,” said Ms Athans-Papaioannou. In addition to the expertise of the two partners, they have enlisted “Divas” or expert guides to the areas they intend to visit. Though Travel Divas accepts “straight” travelers who are also looking for escorted trips to luxury destinations, she said the focus of the company will be on the under-sold gay market. She pointed out that extensive company research found such statistics as 32% of gay males making more than $100,000 a year, compared to a much lower figure for the US population as a whole. “We’re appealing to a hip, upscale market. They’re looking for gay-friendly travel destinations,“ she said. She said she and her partner choose Greece as their first escorted destination because they are intimately familiar with the best restaurants and spas and have other insider knowledge of the country. Travel Divas will later branch out in other areas, she said.–David Wilkening–