For some, vacation can be less than restful. Tanning poolside, partying, or playing on the beach for more than a couple of hours leave some us feeling guilty or searching for excitement. Luckily, there is now an option out there for lesbians of all vacationing styles. Sweet gives its customers way more than an average cruise or travel experience and CherryGrrl.com recently discussed with its CEO and co-founder, Shannon Wentworth, how they do it – and the very important reason why.
Cherrygrrl.com (CG): What is Sweet all about?
Shannon Wentworth (SW): Sweet is a new eco-friendly lesbian travel company dedicated to making the world a better place while having a blast. Our first vacation is a CarbonFree Sweet Caribbean Cruise. It’s going to be the largest lesbian cruise ever. We’re starting out in New Orleans, where we’ll help restore the wetlands destroyed by Katrina. In every port, we’ll do a volunteer project that makes a difference in that community.
CG: How did you develop the idea for a company like Sweet?
SW: Sweet stems from a conversation between my girlfriend Jen Rainin and I. We were dreaming aloud about how to create a fun, empowering, eco-friendly lesbian business that gives back to the community. While we didn’t have the name at the time, we knew we wanted to create a business that was sweet through and through.
CG: What was your professional background prior to founding Sweet?
SW: Working as Director of Promotions and Editor in Chief at Care2 with visionaries like Randy Paynter, Deepak Chopra, Dr. Timothy Brantley, and Annie B. Bond, I saw that it’s possible to create an uncompromising business dedicated to making a difference in the world. As Vice President of Marketing at Olivia and Director of Marketing at PlanetOut, Inc., I honed my lesbian and gay marketing skills. Additionally, I consulted with Anheuser-Busch, USMP, the Game Show Network, Suzanne Westenhoefer, and green builders CMW Architects, McCutcheon Construction, and Live Oak Estates.
CG: When is the first Sweet trip taking place?
SW: Our Sweet Caribbean Cruise, November 8-15, 2009, leaves from New Orleans for Roatan, Honduras; Costa Maya, Mexico; Cozumel, Mexico; and Belize City, Belize.
CG: What types of activities will take place on that first trip?
SW: How long do you have? To start, there’s nearly every vacation amenity you can imagine on the Norwegian Spirit, like world-class spa services, 11 restaurants, eight clubs, hot tubs, pools, fitness center, casino and bingo, you can’t forget the bingo. Our entertainment is amazing. You may have seen Suzanne Westenhoefer in a comedy club, but you won’t have seen her sing karaoke, host a game show or breakdance in the disco. She’s cooking up some really fun, never-before-seen comedy for our voyage. We also booked Erin Foley, who is fresh off her run to the semi-finals of “Last Comic Standing.” Singer-Songwriters Jen Foster and Edie Carey join us as well. Club Skirts, makers of the legendary Dinah Shore Weekend, is producing a few parties on board for us. We’ll announce more entertainers and programming highlights in the next year. Our goal is to make sure people have plenty of time to relax, dance, laugh, and enjoy each other.
CG: What has the response been so far to this first voyage?
SW: Unbelievable. We all came into this venture with big dreams, but the response has been beyond our wildest. People are really connecting to our mission in a way that gives me goose bumps. I get letters every day from women who are so excited to have a company like Sweet in the marketplace. Even if they don’t want to participate in a volunteer project, they are so glad that good is being done while they lie by the pool sipping a margarita. It’s really taken the guilt out of cruise or resort travel. We’re offsetting all the carbon from your air, hotel and sea travel. Sweet women are cleaning up beaches, restoring wetlands, bringing school supplies to children, preserving wildlife habitat and all manner of sweet things.
That connection goes beyond the lesbian community, too. Mainstream businesses that we’re working with are looking into doing volunteer programs and adopting some of our green practices. It’s really beautiful. I mean, it makes a big impact to offset Sweet’s carbon, but if a major national hotel chain does it, well, that’s enormous. We really hope mainstream brands copy us. A big part of our mission is to prove that you can create an economically viable business that nourishes its employees, delights its guests, helps its community and erases its carbon footprint.
Since launching in April 2008, we’ve raised and donated over $50,000 to charitable causes, like Equality California, Stop AIDS Project, San Francisco AIDS Foundation, HRC, LA Gay and Lesbian Center, AquaGirl Foundation, Seattle Scores, Atlanta Lesbian Health Initiative and more. We’ve organized teams to do the AIDS Walk, AIDS LifeCycle, Festival of the Babes and other active charitable events. It’s been great to meet our guests and potential guests prior to our first voyage.
The highlight for me this week is the song Jen Foster wrote about Sweet. It captures our mission, vision and heart so perfectly. I can’t wait to feature it on the site and in our upcoming commercials.
CG: How important are the voluntourism and eco-friendly aspects of what Sweet does?
SW: At Sweet, everything we do hinges on the question: Is it Sweet? It’s not Sweet to travel all over the world and not take an active role in preserving those travel spots for future generations. It’s not Sweet to not clean up your carbon from the atmosphere. Our vacations wouldn’t be Sweet without the volunteer projects and eco-mindedness. And, like I said, we don’t do anything that’s not Sweet.
CG: In addition to the upcoming Sweet travel adventures what is the company working on?
SW: Soon, we’ll announce a Salmon River rafting trip for summer 2009 and an African Safari for February 2010. We’ll announce our 2010 cruise and resort vacations in early 2009. We’re looking at two or three larger vacations in 2010 as well as some smaller adventure trips. We love to hear from people about where they want to go, so stop by Sweet’s web site at DiscoverSweet.com and weigh in.
CG: How are the destinations and stops on the trips chosen? What criteria do you look for?
SW: Number 1 thing we look for is a Sweet partner for our vacations. We don’t want to work with companies that aren’t Sweet. We’re really proud of our relationship with Norwegian Cruise Line. They already do a lot to minimize their impact on the environment and the communities they visit. Our river rafting partner offers zero footprint trips on the Salmon River. Our safari partner is a lesbian-owned company that has been giving back in Africa for decades. We really love the people with whom we are working.
We also listen to people who visit our site. We have our own wish list in the office, too. I want to go the Galapagos again. I’d love to see the Narwhals in the Arctic. I can’t wait to go to Antarctica, Greece, Costa Rica and so many other places. Flavia loves Europe and South America. Nicoll is itching to check off her last continent, Africa. Everyone involved in Sweet is so passionate about travel and so excited to share the world with our guests.
CG: What kinds of individuals do you feel will most benefit from and enjoy a Sweet trip?
SW: Sweet is for women who want to do it all on their vacations and in their lives. Sweet is for women who work hard, play hard, love hard and relax even harder.
CG: What sets this travel company apart from the others?
SW: The voluntourism and eco-tourism aspect of our vacations really set us apart, but our pricing and policies are also one-of-a-kind. We offer all-in-one pricing on our cruises – that means the price you see on the site is the price you pay. There are no added port taxes, gratuities, fuel surcharges, etc. We offer our large inside staterooms at $1,099 per person, double occupancy. We don’t have two or three cabins at our lowest price (a common ruse for getting people to call), we have 146 cabins at that price. We offer a no interest, no fees monthly payment plan to make it really easy for our guests to afford our vacations. We don’t nickel and dime our guests. It’s our goal to provide real value.
CG: What are the long-term goals for the company?
SW: We want to build a financially successful company that makes a difference in the world and nurtures its employees and guests. We think the Sweet brand translates into many areas of lesbian life, so look for us to branch out from travel in the future.
For more information about Sweet visit www.discoversweet.com.
