Oriol Pamies

Oriol Pamies
BornOctober 17, 1989
NationalitySpanish
CitizenshipSpain
Occupation(s)Spanish entrepreneur and LGBT activist
Known forLGBT activism and co-founder of Moovz, an LGBT social network

Oriol Pamies (born October 17, 1989) is a Spanish entrepreneur, LGBT activist and co-founder of LGBTQ+ social network, Moovz and Queer Destinations.[1]

Early life

Pamies was born in Reus, Catalonia.[2][3] In 2008, he moved to Barcelona for his studies, which he dropped when he started to pursue his entrepreneurial career.[4]

In 2012, following an invitation from Idan Matalon, Pamies travelled to Israel to explore new business opportunities.[5]

Career

Pamies joined the Israeli start-up Interacting Technology as their VP Business Development becoming one of the founders of Moovz, an LGBT social network. While in Israel he became an active member of the local LGBT and tech community.[6][7] Through Moovz, Pamies works to position tourist destinations as LGBT friendly.[8] In 2015 and through a partnership with Tel Aviv Municipality, he was behind a project that broadcast through the app the Tel Aviv Pride Parade.[9] In 2016, he advocated and promoted Israel through an interview at the Spanish magazine Shangay.[10] In May 2017, during the annual convention of International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA) in St. Petersburg, Florida, he delivered the first keynote in Spanish.[11][12] In September 2017 in Bogotá, he took part at the International Congress of Social Mobility and Right to the city, organised by the City Hall, where he presented a case study on how the Gay Pride Parade can contribute at the positioning and International promotion of a city as an LGBT friendly destination.[13] He was involved in the failed project Open Sea Cruise, an LGBTQ+ event from Dreamlines and Spanish hotel chain Axel Hotels on a cruise ship with over 1200 people from more than 54 countries joined by artists like Icona Pop, Vengaboys, Kazaky, Eleni Foureira, Conchita Wurst, and RuPaul. The cruise was focused on wellness, fitness and pop music parties and visited cities like Ibiza, Barcelona, Toulon and Ajaccio.[14] In 2019, he founded Queer Destinations, a company focused on the promotion of LGBTQ+ tourism, developing an international tourism certification.[15] The IGLTA and Queer Destinations signed an agreement with the Secretary of Tourism, Miguel Torruco Marqués, to promote the tourist promotion oriented to the LGBTI segment in Mexico.[16][17] That same year, Pamies also developed and launched an LGBT tourism pilot program in Mexico,[18] initially running the program in Yucatán state.[19][20]

LGBT activism

In 2016, Pamies partnered with YouTuber Julio Jaramillo and Juana Martinez in a campaign to defend diversity and tolerance.[21][22] In 2017, Pamies led Moovz to become the official social network of Madrid World Pride 2017 2017.[23] Pamies has taken part in various conferences, presenting topics related to entrepreneurship, online marketing and activism.[24] From 2018-2024 Pamies was on the board of directors of the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA), a non-profit organization with 37 years of history dedicated to promoting LGBTQ+ tourism worldwide.[25]

Publications

In 2019, Pamies published his first book, Ahora Que Ya Lo Sabes (Now You Know) with Diana/Grupo Planeta, which describes his personal story though while dealing with topics as orientation, identity, and gender expression, prejudice, homophobia, acceptance, the process of coming out of the closet, and activism., to help readers make decisions, and to let those who are suffering for being different come to recognize that they are perfect just as they are.It was presented at the 2019 Madrid Pride.[26][27]

Personal life

Pamies is gay. He had spent most of his adolescent years studying at an Opus Dei school, but left when he started to question his sexuality and decided to come out as gay[28] at the age of 19. As a result, Pamies has been a strong promoter of October 11 as National Coming Out Day.[29][30]


References

  1. ^ "LGBTQ Social Influencers: Public Figures With Personal Messages". adweek.com. 11 December 2015. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  2. ^ "Oriol Pàmies: "Es increíble cómo alguien puede transformar lo que más odia de sí mismo en lo que más le hace brillar"". ara.cat. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  3. ^ "Oriol Pàmies, l'activista reusenc fundador de la xarxa social LGTBIQ+ més gran del món". Tarragona Digital. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  4. ^ "Oriol Pàmies: "Es increíble cómo alguien puede transformar lo que más odia de sí mismo en lo que más le hace brillar"". Ara.cat (in Catalan). 2018-02-19. Retrieved 2019-03-05.
  5. ^ "Oriol Pamies, VP Business Development for MOOVZ Discusses Advertising Trends in the LGBT Community". laguestlist.com. 20 January 2016. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  6. ^ "Moovz: el hijo gay de Facebook e Instagram ya está en Colombia". shock.co. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  7. ^ James, Nichols. "Moovz Social Networking App Celebrates #ComingOut". huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  8. ^ "Los 5 influencers gays más importantes del momento". cromosomax.com. 16 March 2017. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  9. ^ "Pride of Tel Aviv". alvarolaforet.com. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  10. ^ "Oriol Pamies : "Todos tenemos un activista dentro". superhypemagazine.com. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  11. ^ "Colombia: Encuentro de Periodismo para la Diversidad". sinetiquetas.org. 20 June 2016. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  12. ^ "Oriol Pàmies: "Hay que impulsar los hoteles 'gay friendly"". Diari de Tarragona (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2019-05-14.
  13. ^ "MOOVZ, EL FACEBOOK DE LOS GAYS". jetset.com.co. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  14. ^ "Oriol Pamies repasa la experiencia del crucero LGTB+ Open Sea by Axel, que ya tiene fecha para 2019". shangay.com. 31 December 2018. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  15. ^ "Board of Directors". www.iglta.org. Retrieved 2021-01-17.
  16. ^ "México firma convenio para la promoción turística del segmento LGBTI". El Heraldo de México (in Mexican Spanish). 2019-04-09. Retrieved 2019-05-14.
  17. ^ Desastre (2019-04-11). "SECTUR firma convenio internacional para promover turismo LGBT". Desastre MX (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2019-05-14. Retrieved 2019-05-14.
  18. ^ De La Rosa, Alejandro (6 April 2019). "Comunidad LGBTT impulsa fuertemente al turismo: Oriol Pamies". El Economista. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  19. ^ "Mexico & Yucatan chosen as first destination for an IGLTA pilot program to consolidate new gay destinations". The Mazatlán Post. 29 October 2019. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  20. ^ "Promoverán turismo para mercado LGBTI". El Universal. 8 March 2019. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  21. ^ "Famosos 'youtubers' publican video de su visita a Costa Rica". nacion.com. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  22. ^ Ed, Salvato (26 September 2015). "Oriol Pamies' Top 6 Things To Do in Barcelona". towleroad.com. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  23. ^ "Intervista al Sexy Oriol Pamies di Moovz". quiikymagazine.com. 26 November 2015. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  24. ^ "Speakers 2017". iglta.org. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  25. ^ "Open Sea, el crucero de la diversidad (y de las estrellas)". shangay.com. 10 October 2018. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  26. ^ "Oriol Pamies: "Cuando estás en el armario solo te alivia conectar con personas que han sufrido lo mismo"". Shangay (in Spanish). 2019-08-04. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  27. ^ ""El armario es para la ropa" - Ahora que ya los sabes". Madrid Pride. 5 July 2019. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  28. ^ López Vivas, Agustín (30 July 2019). "Oriol Pamies: "En el colegio del Opus pensaba que había algo malo en mí"". El Progreso. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
  29. ^ "Oriol Pamies lanza convocatoria por el #NationalComingOutDay". escandala.com. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
  30. ^ "Oriol Pamies y su lucha por abrir los otros armarios". shangay.com. 9 July 2019. Retrieved 11 January 2019.