PwC and TTG Media surveyed 50 companies from a cross section of industry segments including airlines, cruise lines, travel agencies and tour operators to find out how far the travel industry has come and what more needs to be done in this area.

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The survey questions were designed to help gauge maturity of travel businesses across four key dimensions:

• Diversity and inclusion strategy
• Leadership and tone from the top
• HR processes
• Other diversity and inclusion initiatives

Regarding diversity and inclusion strategy, the report found none of the travel companies surveyed could be classed as “leading” in this area, but noted more than 40% of businesses were “advanced”.

“In many cases,” the report states, “the gaps between where the industry is and would want to be centre on application rather than intentions.

“Having a strategy is one thing, the real imperative is delivering this – actions speak louder than words,” it added.

Jon Terry, diversity and inclusion consulting leader for PwC UK, said the report highlighted the “valuable progress being made in areas ranging from the setting up of employee networks to boosting the number of female pilots”.

“Overall, however, the maturity ratings for travel are behind the average for other sectors we’ve surveyed in key areas such as leadership focus, alignment with business strategy and tracking against targets,” he added.

Speaking yesterday at the first TTG Diversity & Inclusion in Travel conference, Terry told delegates that 80% of travel chief executives surveyed had said they “don’t believe diversity and inclusion was a barrier to progression in their organisation”, yet only 20% said they collect data on this.

“How the hell can you know if there’s an issue if you don’t collect the data?” he pointed out.

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