Travel is a celebration of diversity. The all-sensory adventure of cultural immersion gives the curious tourist an ability to understand, empathize, and connect with people and ideas that once seemed foreign.
However, when it comes to the travel industry, diversity is often an afterthought. While businesses flaunt the cultural wonders of far-flung destinations, many fail to represent travelers of different races, sexualities, genders, disabilities, ages, and religions in their marketing campaigns and on-site offerings.
Fortunately, various professionals are effecting change in the industry by creating spaces for travelers who are just as diverse as the places they explore.
Evita Robinson
“If I don’t see it, I create it,” says Evita Robinson, the leader of NOMADNESS Travel Tribe – an online social community primarily for travelers of color. “The travel industry excluding my demographic from their marketing and representation is what turned me into an entrepreneur,” she says.
Evita started NOMADNESS in 2011 with roughly 100 travelers. Today, she’s joined by a vibrant community of over 25,000 people worldwide. This tribe, which consists of 78% women, celebrates its robust LGBTQ+ community, including people with disabilities, Gen Z trendsetters, and even Baby Boomer vagabonds.
“I’m a dreamer,” Evita muses, “but even the biggest dreamers need to see ourselves in certain positions or locations around the world to be like, ‘Oh my gosh – I can do that. I can go there. There are no boundaries.’
In 2018, Evita launched Audacity Fest – a gathering where travelers of color and their allies can connect with like-minded individuals, network with industry leaders, and prepare for their next big adventure. The festival has seen tremendous growth, doubling its attendees by 2019. When the pandemic struck, Evita transformed Audacity into a virtual celebration and is set to lead the upcoming Audacity Digi conference targeting a BIPOC audience.
Even with her recent success, NOMADNESS remains a priority. “I cherish my community and what we’ve been able to build,” says Evita, who has created unforgettable memories traveling across the globe, from India to Samoa to Spain.
Cory Lee
“People with disabilities spend over 17 billion dollars per year just on travel,” says Cory Lee, a blogger who has been sharing his experiences as a traveler and a wheelchair user since 2013. “The market is huge, but we’re so often under-represented and underseen.”
He started his blog, Curb Free With Cory Lee, while planning a trip to Australia. “I was Googling accessible activities in Sydney and noticed there wasn’t much information available,” he recalls. Realizing the lack of resources for accessible travel, he aimed to create a guide for “other wheelchair users planning their travels.”
“People have this preconceived notion that individuals in wheelchairs aren’t traveling,” he asserts; that’s simply a myth. “All the wheelchair users I know are some of the most active people in the world.”
In addition to sharing his adventures across thirty-seven countries and all seven continents, Cory published “Let’s Explore With Cor Cor“, a children’s book featuring a young traveler who explores the world in his wheelchair. In 2018, he also began organizing Curb Free group tours – providing wheelchair users with a unique opportunity to travel stress-free alongside him.
“When a group of wheelchair users rolls through a city, it certainly causes some stares,” he shares, “but I believe we’re making a significant impact on whatever destination we visit, thus creating heightened awareness.”
Richard Gray
Since the mid-1990s, Richard Gray, Senior Vice President of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau (GFLCVB), has utilized marketing campaigns to ignite social change. “I believe visibility leads to understanding and greater acceptance,” he states. “When greater acceptance is achieved, we can eradicate discrimination.”
In 1995, he assisted the GFLCVB in launching a groundbreaking LGBT ad campaign, which dramatically transformed Fort Lauderdale into the number-one LGBT destination in Florida. Nearly fifteen years later, he focused on the “forgotten T” in the LGBT acronym and developed a strategy to establish Fort Lauderdale as a welcoming destination for transgender travelers.
On January 1st, 2017, an advertisement featuring the 2014 Miss World Transgender winner Isabella Santiago premiered on a Times Square billboard in New York City, marking it as the world’s first widely-circulated destination ad featuring transgender models.
This year, Gray initiated a new advertisement campaign, “Celebrate You,” showcasing models of various backgrounds, including disabled, plus-sized, transgender, gay, lesbian, and straight individuals dressed in drag.
“Diversity and inclusion are ingrained in this destination’s DNA,” he asserts, as Fort Lauderdale enjoys significant economic benefits from this perspective. Last year, the area welcomed over 14 million visitors who collectively spent more than six billion dollars, with 10% being LGBTQ travelers. “We know that LGBT travelers spend one-and-a-half times more than mainstream travelers,” he emphasizes, illustrating the substantial economic influence of inclusion.
Martinique Lewis
Diversity and travel consultant Martinique Lewis aspires to “change the face of tourism forever,” and she is committed to her mission. In 2018, she shifted from a fashion career to the travel industry and quickly recognized the significant diversity issues within this space. “I thought, ‘why isn’t anyone addressing this?’ If they won’t, I will,” she confidently declared, leading to important steps toward inclusivity.
That year, she developed the Diversity in Travel Report Card, a tool that rates 183 travel brands and organizations across six continents on their commitment to diversity. The assessment evaluates factors such as hiring practices and the representation of various demographics in advertisements.
In the past year, she has spotlighted brands that successfully advocate for inclusivity and provided a list of consultants specializing in engaging underrepresented groups, including Muslim travelers (Kareemah Ashiru), the Asian community (Dr. Kiona), plus-size travelers (Jeff Jenkins), and travelers with autism (Marquita Straus).
“Every traveler needs to feel included,” says Martinique. A 2019 Accenture survey indicated that 74% of travelers desire travel companies to offer products and services that reflect their identities. “The only way to grow as a business is by tapping into new markets,” she notes, emphasizing that visibility is essential.
In August, Martinique launched the ABC Travel Greenbook – a modern version of the historical “Negro Motorist Green Book” with an international approach. Like the original Green Book, designed to help Black Americans navigate safe spaces during segregation, her guide highlights Black communities and businesses around the globe, encouraging travel and supporting Black-owned enterprises.
Martinique has much to be proud of as she holds the travel industry accountable for an issue that has previously gone unaddressed. Positive change is on the horizon, thanks to advocates like her.
