CHEA Founder and CEO Stephanie Jones on Creating Travel Industry Inclusivity

“You need to know the professionals to really excel and profit in this industry.” – Stephanie Jones (Photo Credit: Courtesy Stephanie Jones)

Stephanie M. Jones is the founder and CEO of the Cultural Heritage Economic Alliance (CHEA), an organization dedicated to reshaping travel and tourism to better serve under-represented small BIPOC businesses.

Through CHEA, Jones has launched initiatives including Blacks in Travel & Tourism, the Black Cultural Heritage Tours Collective, the Diversity Tourism Academy and the Black Tour Operators Network.

These programs are designed to create travel industry opportunities for Black-owned travel businesses, fostering inclusivity and ensuring their meaningful participation in the global tourism industry.

Jones’ advisory activities include a second appointment to the United States Travel and Tourism Advisory Board, chair of Hurtigruten's Black Travel Advisory Board, and membership on Northstar Travel Group’s Black Travel Advisory Board.

Jones’ global impact was underscored by her selection as the only U.S.-based finalist in the 2021 UNWTO’s Social Entrepreneurship Competition in Tourism.

TravelPulse spoke recently with Stephanie, also CEO of Disrupt for Change Media, to learn more about her efforts to create a more inclusive travel distribution environment.

TP: How did you launch CHEA?

SJ: I started CHEA in February of 2020, right before or I guess right during the onset of the coronavirus. The mission at the time was to address some of the issues around technical assistance and capacity-building for under-represented black and brown small businesses that are part of the travel and tourism ecosystem but have not benefited from it.

TP: Why haven’t BIPOC firms benefitted from travel industry activity in your view?

SJ: We know that there are several reasons why that happens. Part of it is because the industry has not been intentional about creating equitable opportunities, particularly for small BIPOC suppliers to become part of the ecosystem or the travel trade supply chain.

The industry is very much pay-to-play and it's very costly to be in the rooms where you can meet with international buyers to sell your products [and] to drive inbound travelers into your business or into your community. And if you're not in the room, you're not in the game.

The industry prior to the pandemic was not inclusive from a diversity perspective; we saw that that diversity was really only reflected in service-related positions.

Mead's Bay Beach Anguilla (Photo Credit: Brian Major)

TP: Is this a widely shared viewpoint?

SJ: I've had debates with people from tourism boards and state tourism who say “Oh, [the industry] is diverse,” because from their perspective, the diversity that they see are those people who are the service workers, making the beds [and] serving people in restaurants.

I'm not saying there is anything wrong with those positions, but the reality is we know that this is a trillion-dollar industry and it's not black and brown people that have again been able to actively participate and profit from it.

So, being a small, Black proprietor and enduring my own challenges working in Florida tourism, I have witnessed first-hand the lack of diversity equity and inclusion at industry meetings and events when I'm typically if not the only Black person in the room or person of color, one of a few amongst hundreds of people.

I show up at these events and there's this feeling of isolation or looks of ‘What are you doing here?’ or not just being acknowledged.

TP: How did these experiences affect you as an industry professional?

SJ: Because I have thick skin and because I know that I have a right to be in any room that I choose. I also know that the other small businesses that look like me may be intimidated to go to some of these industry events.

You need to know the professionals to really excel and profit in this industry. Because small Black businesses have not been [reached] by the industry, so many of them don't actually understand it. They're not even ready to participate in the industry or work with large groups of travelers.

They're good at what they do, but they don't have the business structure in place to support groups of visitors or tourists. We recognized the need to make certain that these businesses understand the global travel and tourism industry and how to become positioned in it.

TP: How does CHEA help these businesses?

SJ: We teach members how to do a business assessment to be able to enhance those areas of their businesses where there needs to be broader capacity or just where they have gaps so they are able to fulfill a quality, world-class experience for travelers.

We [also] give them perspective from both sides, from the industry side and also from the supplier side. We set out to try to bridge that gap by one, helping these businesses become tourism and market-ready, and two, by educating the industry about small suppliers and the diverse experiences that they provide in local destinations which again often don't receive a lot of tourism traffic.

TP: Is that the focus of initiatives like your Diversity Tourism Academy?

SJ: Yes. [Our] business is to help these businesses become tourism and market-ready. We also get them certified as businesses and ready to work with the industry. By going through the Diversity Tourism Academy and being vetted we make certain that these businesses are viable.

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