Awards to make more room at the top for women

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.