LGBTIQ-friendly scale in tourism businesses: Conceptualization, development and validation

Abstract

LGBTIQ-friendly in tourism businesses (LGBTIQ-FTB) encompass a wide range of formal and informal business practices, including internal decisions, market strategies, and societal engagement. However, the understanding of LGBTIQ-FTB has, thus far, remained fragmented and lacks a comprehensive perspective. This article theorizes LGBTIQ-FTB as a multidimensional construct and develops and validates a scale to measure it. The six-dimensional LGBTIQ-FTB scale encompasses: inclusive awareness-raising and training, fostering a supportive climate of diversity and inclusion, ensuring equal opportunities and benefits, implementing non-discrimination policies, positioning in the market with respect to diversity and inclusion, and adopting inclusive attitudes in service provision. The scale's generalizability and nomological validity were examined through two distinct studies conducted in tourism companies in Portugal and Spain. This proposed scale serves as a valuable tool for future research endeavors aiming to assess entrepreneurial behaviors, patterns, and factors related to LGBTIQ friendliness, as well as the resulting outcomes.