The Diversity and Confusion study by The Unmistakables, shared exclusively with TTG, claimed only 45% of travel industry workers saw ED&I with a high level of importance – in contrast to a national average of 57% across other sectors and contrasting those in arts and culture (65%) and healthcare (66%). 

The new research, which saw the ED&I specialist consultancy survey 1,600 UK workers across a number of industries, also revealed that only 53% of travel workers say they work in an inclusive environment where everyone feels they are able to contribute. 

This is compared to architecture, engineering and building (70%) and education (63%) and a national average of 60%. The report also claimed people in travel are less likely to be “actively engaged” in workplace conversations around ED&I (25% vs a national average of 37%), nor do they believe they should be part of the conversation (24% compared to the national figure of 43%)

“Our report indicates there is a disconnect between ‘say’ and ‘do’; we know the travel industry as a whole claims to be making progress [on ED&I] but in reality, the people working in the industry are disengaged,” said Asad Dhunna, chief executive of The Unmistakables.

A higher number of staff in travel also told the research they more likely to find workplace conversations about ED&I “frustrating” (33% vs the national average of 26%) and compared to those working in education (17%) and healthcare (18%), while 28% people in the travel industry “feel nervous” when ED&I is mentioned at work (against a 22% UK average).

Around a third (30%) of those working in travel also admitting to disengaging from ED&I conversations in their workplace (vs a 26% UK average), the research claimed, while “diversity” topics staff have “actively avoided through fear of saying the wrong thing” include race and ethnicity (71% vs 67%), religion (73% vs 67%), sexual orientation (63% vs 61%) and disability (67% vs 59%).

Only 24% of people in travel feel they should be a part of the EDI conversation at work vs 53% in IT and telecoms, 52% in arts and culture, 49% in finance and 45% in healthcare.

“As an industry that’s in the process of rebuilding post-Covid, there’s never been a better time to embed a more equitable way of working that will be more inclusive by design,” added Dhunna.

“The active avoidance of discussing ‘diversity’ topics often leads to performative marketing where we see representation but – because of the disinterest in genuinely understanding minoritised communities or indeed cater to needs – we are not seeing inclusion which, in turn, is hindering the ability to appeal to more potential consumers.”

The Unmistakables highlighted four “prominent themes” around the UK’s current approach to ED&I in the workplace, which it urged “every business leader” to be aware of and navigate: exclusion, disillusion, delusion, illusion.

Exclusion

Underrepresented groups feel the most excluded from the work of ED&I, with 45% of the UK’s working population believing “your chances in life are broadly determined by your background”, a belief most common among the country’s underrepresented communities

Disillusion

According to The Unmistakables, underrepresented groups are most frustrated and disillusioned by the current ED&I conversation, and only 32% of disabled employees, 25% of LGBT+ employees, and 27% of employees who identify with a religion are comfortable talking about their identities/beliefs with their colleagues – with 25% of the workforce finding conversations about ED&I “frustrating” and 22% “nerve-wracking”

Delusion

Confidence in talking “broadly” about ED&I in the workplace has grown but there is a disconnect, with staff still not confident in discussing topics related to identity, and confidence is low when it comes to conversations around age, disability, gender, race ethnicity or religious beliefs.

Illusion

The Unmistakables also highlighted the negative use of the word “woke”, which it said had been used as a means of “cancelling, threatening, destabilising or delegitimising” ED&I initiatives. In 2022, 120,000 UK news stories were published about ED&I subjects, compared to 28,600 featuring the word woke. However, woke-led news saw far more impact when looking at social media traction.