Travel companies urged to make allyship a priority

The travel industry has been urged to prioritise work on allyship and company culture to make the sector more inclusive.

At a Women in Travel event at the Intrepid Travel head office, leaders discussed the importance of company culture and policies and other factors which could benefit both men and women in the workplace but could be deprioritised “when things get tough”.

Women in Travel founder and managing director Alessandra LoTufo Alonso emphasised the importance of allyship across the industry, noting the organisation was the first in travel in 2021 to use the term.

“In a world that is gender divisive, it is so important that especially men and allies are in the room and play the role in supporting and being an ally, as often you have the keys, are in senior roles and have an opportunity to support others and make this industry more inclusive,” she said.

This was echoed by Intrepid Travel chief marketing officer Hazel Maguire, who said “getting the right voices in the room” and avoiding too many “conversations in closed groups and loops” was critical to moving the dial, in addition to prioritising “allyship” with communities where companies organise travel to.

She also said retaining or introducing policies around parental leave and childcare, which would benefit male and female employees, were crucial to progress.

“You travel quite a lot for work in a lot of cases, and so having a policy that allows you to claim back money for additional childcare needs that you needed to put in place whilst you were away makes more senior opportunities open for people,” she said.

“It is really important that those policies remain in place even when things are tough.”

Beth Alcorn, head of commercial at Sanderson Phillips, stressed enhanced parental leave and allyship would help men as well as women.

She urged companies to not just adopt such policies, but bake them into company culture, adding: “We are all in the trenches right now in the travel industry, and quite a lot of the time we are having to learn a new resilience.

“The only way to continue is if allyship is in your culture and becomes part of the DNA.”

Quinn Meyer, founder of Crees Manu and a member of the Women in Travel ally programme, recommended companies create safe spaces for conversations around allyship, equality and inclusion, in addition to assigning specific time every week for allyship and mentorship.

“Finding the right space to have the discussion is massive,” he said. “Listening and doing the reading and beginning to talk about how that impacts you and makes you feel is really powerful.”

He added the company has a mentor and allyship every Friday morning so everyone can spend time “anywhere they choose to” to learn more about the topic.

Keynote speaker Lee Chambers, chief executive at Male Allies UK, said “the biggest barrier” to being an inclusive leader was “thinking you already are one”.

He added: “Allyship is a fundamental set of skills of being able to work across difference, listen more effectively, flex leadership style, understand the collective power of difference and how we foster that within others.

“Those skills in an increasingly valuable in an uncertain and volatile world where technology is changing the skillsets that are going to be valuable in the future, and a sometimes quite rare skill-set, especially for an industry with so much cultural difference, an industry that’s curating experience, and in an industry where volatility and change are just the everyday standard.”

Other common obstacles Chambers has found through his work with companies were the perceived priority, time and effort needed.

However, he encouraged people to take five minutes each day to dedicate to “small consistent micro-actions” to be more intentionally inclusive” until it becomes a skill.