In an effort to recognize and
celebrate the diversity of the people who own the hotels and restaurants on its
platform, Tripadvisor is adding functionality so those companies can display an
“identity attribute.”
Businesses in the United States and Canada can select from eight attributes such as Black-owned, Indigenous-owned,
LGBTQIA+-owned and woman-owned. Tripadvisor says it selected these attributes
based on research it conducted with 250,000 hotel and restaurant owners in the two
countries.
Thirty-nine percent of
business owners that responded to a Tripadvisor survey said they would use the
attributes if available, with the highest interest coming from LGBTQ+-, Black-,
Hispanic/Latinx- and Indigenous-owned businesses. The company says hundreds
of businesses have already added an identity attribute to their profile during
the test period.
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“Representation is extremely
important to the millions of businesses listed on our platform — and to the
hundreds of millions of travelers and diners they serve,” says Kanika Soni, chief
commercial officer at Tripadvisor.
“Enabling hotels and
restaurants to celebrate their diversity is yet another way we deliver helpful
guidance to those eager to support these businesses when visiting Tripadvisor.”
Tripadvisor says it hopes to make
the attributes available to businesses in other locations and to add functions
such as searchability in the future.
The platform is working with
trade association and business advocacy groups to ensure hotel and
restaurant owners are aware of this feature.