Michael Luongo

Michael Luongo is a New York-based freelance journalist and photographer concentrating on Latin America and the Middle East, whose work has taken him to more than 80 countries and all seven continents.

He has written for the New York Times, Bloomberg News, National Geographic Traveler, Gay City News and other publications. He is the author, editor or contributor for numerous books. His best known books include Continuum’s Gay Tourism: Culture, Identity and Sex, the first academic book on the gay travel industry; Routledge’s Gay Travels in the Muslim World first produced when he was the imprint editor for Haworth Press’s Out in the World LGBT travel literature series, and the only gay themed American book ever translated into Arabic; the Frommers Buenos Aires, the best selling U.S. published guide to the Argentine capital; and his novel The Voyeur, published by Alyson Books.

Among other awards, he is the 2010-2011 Grand Prize in Travel Journalism Winner for the North American Travel Journalists Association and the 2011 LGBT Journalist of the Year Award for the National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association, where he is also Travel Caucus Chair. Michael has a BA in communications from Rutgers College, Rutgers University (1991) and a Masters in City and Regional Planning from Rutgers University (1997) where his research focus was gay tourism, among the first times the subject was looked at in depth academically. His website is www.michaelluongo.com