Celebrity Cruises has launched a campaign that tackles the lack of diversity in travel marketing, by featuring photographs of activists from underrepresented groups.
The All-Inclusive Photo Project urges travel companies to do likewise and includes a free-to-use, open-source online image library for other travel brands and companies to use.
Images feature the work of famous photographers including Annie Leibovitz, an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community; Giles Duley, an English documentary photographer and disability campaigner who became a triple amputee when injured while working in conflict zones; Naima Green, a Black, queer New York-based photographer; and Jarrad Seng, an Australia-based photographer, filmmaker and creative director of Malaysian-Chinese descent.
The collection features models, musicians, athletes, artists, activists, refugees and others from underrepresented groups, as they travel on Celebrity’s ships and within the destinations visited.
Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, Celebrity Cruises president and chief executive, said: “For far too long, ‘all-inclusive’ in the travel industry has meant everything on your vacation is included in one price. We set out to challenge this conventional thinking by imagining the phrase through the lens of others.
“What Annie and all of the talented artists involved in this project have captured so beautifully is that for vacations to really live up to the marketing moniker ‘all-inclusive,’ then they should start by using images that are inclusive of all, not just a few.”
She added: “We want our marketing – as with everything we do as a cruise line – to represent how the world looks, and what we experience on our ships daily, as guests and crew from all walks of life work and play together to create a really special onboard environment.”
Michael Scheiner, Celebrity Cruises’ chief marketing officer, said: “As global brands, we have a powerful platform to act as a catalyst of positive change. We know we have more work to do and we hope we inspire others to join us on this important journey.
“By leveraging our collective travel industry might, we can begin to make travel marketing truly ‘all-inclusive’.”
Celebrity Cruises will launch the AIPP collection as a dedicated brand advertising campaign in early April.
Photo: Jillian Mercado, actress and American fashion model, one of the few professional models who has a visible physical disability in the fashion industry, enjoys a meal.