The panel discussion, hosted by Bame Women in Travel, focused on an issue that’s become increasingly acute in recent years: the lack of racial diversity in the UK travel sector.

The horrific death of George Floyd has prompted industries to face uncomfortable questions in recent weeks and travel is no exception. “Too many think racial inequality is no longer prevalent,” points out columnist Jamie-Lee Abtar and host of the Bame Women in Travel event, “in fact, if you open your eyes, you realise it’s everywhere.”

She also notes that while numerous firms in various industries posted comments of support for the Black Lives Matter movement, “the silence from UK travel brands has been deafening”.

Yes, some adopted black squares or posted vague statements about the importance of inclusion. But without evidence of how a business plans to action its admirable declarations, such words are meaningless. 

As Responsible Travel’s Justin Francis points out in his column last week: “To achieve deep and lasting change, we need to listen, acknowledge, learn and act. These are behaviours we need to practice daily - and be held to account on”.

If a company is truly committed to equality it must examine its hiring polices, consider its recruitment pools, address the imagery used to represent its brand. Using a 2.4 white nuclear family across all marketing is not going to cut it any more. Nor should it.

Last year a first-of-its-kind report by PwC and TTG found the travel industry was “lagging behind other sectors” on diversity and inclusion. To tackle this, TTG hosted the first TTG Diversity and Inclusion Conference and we were proud last week to support the Bame Women in Travel event (see next week’s TTG for a full report).

It was heartening to note the impressive numbers of people who attended, and to see individuals speaking out publicly and passionately afterwards, committed to effecting change in the industry. 

The real challenge though, lies in turning these words into action.