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Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 31, 2010/LGBT News/ In two weeks time, lesbians and gay men living in Argentina will begin to legally marry, and the city of Buenos Aires has just received a wedding gift worth more than $50,000 to celebrate.

The move has been welcomed by the City of Buenos Aires Tourism Ministry - as Out Now, a global specialist gay marketing agency, has just donated over $50,000 worth of staff training to help educate the city's tourism and hospitality sector on how to deliver customer service which best understands lesbian and gay travelers needs.

In announcing the gift, Out Now's CEO - Ian Johnson - said his company was honored to thank Argentina for taking such an important step for gays and lesbians worldwide. He announced that Out Now is to make its GayComfort program widely and freely available to the tourism sector - right across Argentina's capital city, Buenos Aires.

"The importance of next month's move to equality for lesbian and gay people living in Argentina cannot be overstated," Johnson says. "By this one action, Argentina has sent a signal to the world that this is a modern country, where equal means equal - for all its citizens."

"As a result, lesbian and gay people around the world are now more likely to add Buenos Aires to the top of their tourism hit-list," Johnson said.

"Out Now is delighted to make our leading industry-standard GayComfort training and certification program available to all of Buenos Aires' hotel sector - at no cost," Johnson said. "It is our way to say thank you for taking this step - which inspires gay and lesbian people in the country, in the region and around the world."

Buenos Aires becomes the first Latin American city to become certified in Out Now's GayComfort training and certification program. Other GayComfort certified cities also include Berlin, Tel Aviv, Stockholm, Helsinki and Australia's Gold Coast.

GayComfort certification sets the standard in training staff on LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) sensitivity issues. By preparing frontline staff, hotels learn how to deliver enhanced customer service to meet the travel concerns of lesbian and gay travelers when on vacation.

Many of the world's leading hotel brands at locations around the world are also already part of this program. Leading global tour operators - including Air Canada Vacations, Mark Travel Corporation and TUI - are also partners in the GayComfort program.

About Out Now

Out Now is a global LGBT market specialist with two decades of marketing experience relied upon by leading brands including IBM, Toyota, TUI, Lufthansa, German National Tourist Office, Merck, Sony Music, Barclays, Lloyds TSB and Citibank.

About GayComfort

GayComfort is a trademark of Out Now. It delivers online training in four languages (Spanish, French, German and English) to tourism and hospitality staff working around the world. It is designed not to treat gay customers differently, but to treat them the same as all other customers - as equally worthy of respect as valued customers. GayComfort training leads to hotels becoming GayComfort certified so that lesbian and gay customers can 'know before they go' where to stay on vacation.