As we mark International Women’s Day, let’s make a call to the industry to create better conditions for women to thrive, says VFS Global regional head Yummi Talwar
Sunday March 8 is International Women’s Day – a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women and a call to action to accelerate women’s equality.
On the customer side in the travel industry, women are certainly making their mark. Almost two-thirds of travellers today are women, according to a report last year by travel management company FCM Solutions, with women making 80% of all travel decisions.
That means 670 million women around the world controlling $15 trillion in spending power, a market twice the size of China and India combined.
Equally, much has been made about the growth of the solo travel market and here too women are leading the way.
Figures from research company Hitwise found 55% of solo travel searches in the UK were made by women.
But while women are the dominant consumers of travel, these numbers aren’t reflected in employment in many sectors of the industry or in the highest decision-making positions.
Take the airline sector. Airlines association Iata estimates women make up 5% of pilots globally, and just 3% of airline CEOs.
The industry is also lagging in management roles more generally. Women remain under-represented in leadership roles in the UK hospitality industry, according to a survey by management consultancy PwC in 2019.
Board level representation by women in hospitality was 23.6%, with FTSE350 companies slightly better at 25.1% and a FTSE100 average of 32.2%, but non-listed companies at 18.2%.
There are organisations implementing strategies to encourage women’s employment and career progression to top-level roles.
For instance, Hilton’s Women in Leadership strategy includes initiatives such as a women’s leadership development programme, an executive committee networking scheme and a women’s mentoring programme.
Women represent 45% of global management roles at Hilton, while the company has set three-year diversity goals targeting women and minority groups.
Iata launched a ‘25 by 2025’ campaign last September which aims to increase the number of women in senior positions by 25% against current reported metrics and to a minimum 25% in under-represented jobs like pilots and operations.
In my company, VFS Global, women make up 59% of the total workforce and hold a number of senior positions. I head the company’s UK and Europe operations, the first woman to do so, and prior to this was regional head for the Middle East.
VFS Global offers several training and development programmes to help develop women into key leadership roles. We also have a women’s networking group as a platform to support each other.
But examples like this are still few and far between in the travel industry.
China Eastern, Lufthansa and Qatar Airways have signed up for Iata’s 25 by 2025 campaign, yet this represents only a handful of airlines.
We need to see more companies across all travel sectors commit to promote gender equality and put in place programmes to develop more women for leadership roles.
Gender diversity does not only mean more viewpoints being put forward at management level, fostering creativity in business strategy
Because women are now the dominant consumers of travel, the industry is putting itself at a disadvantage by side-lining employees who know them best.
Travel is the business of freedom. But many women in the industry are still being held back because of gender inequality.
As we mark International Women’s Day, let’s make a call to the industry to create better conditions for women to thrive.