After many travel brands posted a black square on social media in support of Black Lives Matter following the killing of George Floyd, the Black Travel Alliance called on them to publicly share metrics on Black representation in their companies and activities.
The #PullUpForTravel campaign, which launched in June, was designed to challenge the disconnect between travel brands’ pronouncements and their actions in the travel space.
Specifically, #PullUpForTravel asked travel brands to share 2019 KPIs on Black representation in five areas: employment, conferences and trades hows, paid advertising/marketing campaigns, press and philanthropy.
Now, the Black Travel Alliance – a community of Black travel content creators that aims to hold destinations and travel brands accountable as well as to provide training and business support to its members – has released the results of the campaign.
The alliance finds that Black people are under-represented at all levels within the travel industry, and there is a great need to address the imbalance.
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Of the 121 travel organizations that the Black Travel Alliance identified as posting about Black Lives Matter or Blackout Tuesday, 67, or 55%, responded to the #PullUpForTravel campaign.
Regarding representation in employment, of the 67 campaign respondents, 29 companies gave a percentage range of from 0% to 90%. However, most of the responses were for the category of people of color (POC) employees and not specifically Black employees.
For conferences and trade shows, of the 67 respondents, six companies provided figures that they ensured Black representation on speaker panels, workshops and sessions.
On the paid advertising/marketing campaigns front, 12 companies provided data figures demonstrating that they included Black representation in TV, radio, print and digital channels in 2019.
For press, six companies provided data indicating that they ensured Black representation on media trips in 2019, and five companies provided figures for charitable contributions to Black charities and community groups.
The Black Travel Alliance notes that much of the information it received was incomplete and contained statements rather than reporting of actual KPIs. It also observed that travel-related retail brands and travel-related financial services brands had the lowest response rate for the campaign.
(Disclosure: PhocusWire’s parent company, Northstar Travel Group, participated in the #PullUpForTravel campaign, sharing that the company has 3% Black representation overall and 2% Black representation in director-level and above positions.)
Moving ahead
Despite this, the alliance calls the campaign a success. “As a new organization, we were able to get 67 destination management organizations and travel brands to go on the record about Black representation within their companies,” says Black Travel Alliance president Martinique Lewis.
“This now becomes a benchmark for greater transparency and accountability in the months and years to come.”
Speaking during Wanderful’s Moving Forward: An Anti-Racism Town Hall for the Travel Industry, held October 17, Lewis added that, since June, many travel brands still aren’t sure how to move forward with diversity and inclusion efforts or that they can hire people to help their companies advance.
“It’s harder than we think, but we’re moving. It’s a tortoise-and-hare situation, and right now it’s the tortoise,” she says.
“You will find the resources if it’s truly important to you because you care about how your brand looks moving forward.”
RISE Travel Institute founder and executive director Vincie Ho, who also participated in the Wanderful event, said it’s imperative for travel brands to realize that the Black Lives Matter movement taking place is not an American issue, but a global one. “The majority of the global tourism industry isn't actually responding to the movement as we are in the U.S.,” she says.
“We need to keep pushing the conversation and cultivating future generations of travelers who will demand accountability.”
Lewis added: “Make your decision. Are you going to keep the same energy you had on Blackout Tuesday? Some [travel brands] had the nerve to take [the black square] down. Allyship is not something you turn on and off.”
The Black Travel Alliance plans to undertake a formal study the #PullUpForTravel campaign before its one-year anniversary to see what improvements travel brands have made.