Alessio Virgili is managing director of SONDERS AND BEACH, a group of companies operating in tourism since 2002, based in Italy and the United States and with more than 100 employees.
He founded his business with his life-long partner, Andrea Cosimi, and the pair has been on the market ever since, achieving one success after another. Alessio has overseen four main companies: Quiiky tours, Italy's first gay and lesbian tour operator; QMagazine, the first gay and lesbian lifestyle magazine, published in both digital and print formats; Sonders Hotels, a facility management and relocation business for catering and hotellerie; Wimbify, the innovative app offering gay and lesbian travel services.
Among his many activities promoting gay and lesbian tourism, he became an IGLTA ambassador in 2010 and in that same year founded the Italian Gay and Lesbian Tourism Association (AITGL) with TTG Italia Travel Fair, US Airways, San Francisco and Massachusetts Tourism Board, Philadelphia CVB, Thema Nuovi Mondi and Master Consulting.
In 2011, he set up Expo Gay Tourism, the gay tourism fair that initially took place at NoFrills in Bergamo and now at BIT in Milan. Since then, his contribution to the emergence of gay and lesbian tourism in Italy, as well as his institutional involvement in affirming civil rights and the recognition of equality in Italian society, has been unwavering.
In 2017, Alessio led SONDERSANDBEACH ITALY to be the first Italian tourism company recognised by UN Free & Equal for its corporate policy of respecting human rights.
In 2018, he proposed the candidature of Milan to host the 37th IGLTA congress, with the City of Milan, ENIT National Tourism Agency and the American Consulate in Milan. The bid was successful and Milan will host the congress for the first time in Italy. Alessio was appointed president of the local committee.