Speaking at the 2022 International Women in Travel and Tourism Forum in London, Aisha Shaibu, founder and director of Moonlight Experiences, a platform dedicated to decolonising travel and celebrating queer culture, explained how the company partnered with collectives and other relevant community groups for help on a major survey related to diversity and travel. 

The initiative, which came about because the organisation struggled to secure enough diversity through its usual focus group partners, yielded over 3,000 survey responses. 

“If we don’t have those resources, it’s about working with organisations that do,” explained Shaibu, adding that companies need, “not just to change as part of the service you are providing but to be part of the change in society”.

Dr Claire Bonham, chief executive of Sculpt, which helps marginalised people into work, agreed charities and community groups could help. “We have a ready pool of young people telling us what they think, which would be a valuable resource to some companies I’m sure,” she pointed out.

The session also heard how some companies had to looked to wider communities to find people with lived experience to lead tours.

Intrepid even lobbied the Moroccan government to make changes that would help it to safely support women into work in the male-dominated field of tour-leading within the country.

Dr Sumeetra Ramakrishnan, a senior teaching fellow at the University of Surrey meanwhile stressed that now was the time for urgent action on diversity, not simply long-term strategies and mission statements.

“What are you doing today? Look at your training, what your recruitment panel looks like,” she said.

Ramakrishnan added that companies could help ensure diversity by revisiting the benchmarks they use to measure success “… look at how we define what is a supplier, what is talent, how you promote people, what is success?”