The Gender Equality Champion of the Year award – the first honour of its kind in the tourism sector – will also aim to drive improvement by encouraging tourism businesses to integrate gender equality into policies and work practices.

Equality in Tourism said the travel industry "must address gender equality" in the workplace and reward and highlight best practice for replication and development across the sector.

Applications for the new award are welcome from any tourism or hospitality organisation committed to gender equality, and the award will be judged by a panel of gender and tourism experts, including Dr Stroma Cole, reader in tourism at the University of Westminster.

Cole said: "Structural barriers, patriarchal norms, and an inequitable global system in the tourism and hospitality industries cannot be addressed with an award. But this award will take an important step to push for change."

Applications should be made by 17 January 2023 and the award will be presented on 7 March 2023 at ITB Berlin.