Awards to make more room at the top for women

TTG has teamed up with everywoman, experts in the advancement of women in business, to launch a new awards scheme that will recognise female leaders in the travel industry.

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Daniel Pearce: "We look forward to helping to raise the profile of this brilliant scheme within our industry."

The initiative will include a special TTG category for aspiring young women in the sector. Here, we outline why you should nominate yourself or your colleagues – and how to do it.

For an industry in which male employees outnumber females, travel is still lacking when it comes to women holding the top jobs.

Research by the Association of Women Travel Executives (AWTE) into 78 UK travel companies found that while 60% of staff were women, they represented fewer than 16% of board members. Equally damning was the finding that more than a quarter of companies did not have a single female board member.

Despite several recent executive appointments of women in large UK travel organisations, including easyJet chief executive Carolyn McCall, former Thomas Cook chief executive Harriet Green, and Sally Balcombe, chief executive of VisitBritain, women are still hugely under-represented within senior-level roles. Moreover, travel is also lagging behind generally – data from FTSE 100 companies reveals that 25% of board members in the top firms are women.

To help address this, TTG has launched a partnership with everywoman, the experts in the advancement of women in business. The organisation has had success with other awards programmes in industries including transport and logistics, retail, technology and entrepreneurship. Perhaps most famously, everywoman has partnered with NatWest for 15 years to celebrate women entrepreneurs, with past winners including interior designer Kelly Hoppen and fashion and homeware designer Cath Kidston.

Inaugural travel awards

TTG will present the first everywoman in Travel Tomorrow’s Leader Award at a ceremony on November 16 at the East Wintergarden in London’s Canary Wharf.

Daniel Pearce, TTG Media managing director, said: “TTG Media is delighted to work with everywoman on their first awards in travel.

“As strong champions of diversity through our work with both the LGBT community and young people in travel, it was a natural step for us to partner with everywoman.

We look forward to helping to raise the profile of this brilliant scheme within our industry.”

Previous everywoman winners and finalists have become long-term everywoman ambassadors and visible role models to the next generation of female talent. Everywoman believes that when women have access to female role models in business, they are more engaged with their organisations and more likely to advance further into senior positions.

Karen Gill, co-founder of everywoman, said: “From aviation and tourism to travel retail and entrepreneurship, we’re keen to address the shortage of women in senior-level positions and work towards a more gender-balanced workforce.”

Economic phenomenon

Everywoman describes the travel industry as “an economic phenomenon” with employment opportunities increasing at almost double the rate of the rest of the UK labour market since 2009. Worldwide, the sector is predicted to create 70 million new jobs over the next 10 years.

To recognise the pipeline of future talent, the everywoman in Travel Awards will include categories for women at all stages of their careers, including university graduates and apprentices who have demonstrated a passion for the travel industry.

AWTE chair Sarah Clayton-Turner added: “We are thrilled to be partnering with everywoman for their inaugural travel awards.

“As an association dedicated to promoting and developing the careers of women in travel, we are delighted to work with everywoman in recognising and showcasing the fabulous female talent in our industry.”