HBX Group has recently been awarded the Queer Destinations Committed distinction, recognising its efforts to strengthen inclusive travel standards through awareness, education, and service excellence across teams and its partner network.

HBX Group has received the 

Queer Destinations Committed 

distinction 

This recognition reflects the progress made in embedding inclusion across the organisation, supported by a dedicated employee training programme focused on LGBTQIA+ awareness and understanding, with participation reaching close to 90% across teams. Awarded by Queer Destinations, the programme recognises organisations that actively promote safe, respectful, and trusted environments for LGBTQ+ individuals—whether travellers or employees—while ensuring teams have the knowledge and sensitivity needed to consistently deliver these standards.

As part of this broader collaboration, and during Pride Month, we also hosted an internal session for employees with Queer Destinations focused on LGBTQIA+ inclusion in the workplace and in everyday interactions, including both internal and external (partner and customer-facing) contexts.

The session brought together colleagues and partners to reflect on how inclusion is experienced in practice, and how it is shaped by behaviours, language, and day-to-day decisions. Rather than staying at a conceptual level, the discussion explored real situations that can arise in professional environments, highlighting how small actions can shape whether people feel safe, respected, and included.

The session looked at common situations where unconscious bias can appear, such as communication styles, informal comments, or the way people are addressed, and how these moments can impact both team culture and everyday interactions.

From the discussion, several practical insights emerged that are relevant for companies across sectors, particularly those operating in people-facing industries such as tourism and hospitality, where everyday interactions directly shape customer and employee experience:

Integrate sustainability into decision‑making, considering not only environmental impact but also social and cultural effects. 

• Small behaviours shape culture: Everyday interactions—how people speak, respond, and address others—play a key role in defining whether an environment feels inclusive.

• Language matters more than expected: Using inclusive and respectful language consistently helps reduce uncertainty and creates safer environments for both employees and external stakeholders.

• Awareness needs to be translated into action: Understanding inclusion is not enough on its own; it needs to be reflected in day-to-day behaviours, team dynamics, and decision-making.

• Creating a safe environment to act and report is key: Employees need to feel empowered not only to address or correct non-inclusive situations when they arise, but also to rely on clear and accessible channels where concerns can be raised safely and confidentially. This ensures that situations are properly acknowledged and addressed when needed.

•  Inclusion is a shared responsibility: Creating inclusive environments is not the role of a single team or policy area, but something that needs to be embedded across all levels of an organisation.