Destinations International, the world's largest resource for official destination organizations, tourism boards and convention and visitors bureaus (CVBs), has just released its 2022 Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Study on Destination Organizations.
In 2017, Destinations International dedicated itself to prioritizing Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) as a strategic goal, both for itself and on behalf of its member organizations and the wider tourism industry.
The association began its research began back in 2019 with the aim of benchmarking EDI levels within destination organizations around the globe and continued to further collect baseline analytics annually by directly surveying its membership.
The 2022 edition both makes the business case for EDI practices and provides data, insights and suggestions as to how destination organizations can continue to grow in terms of their EDI principles, policies and procedures.
"Destinations International continues to be committed to transforming destination communities through thought leadership, best practices and tools based on EDI standards and principles," said Don Welsh, president and CEO of Destinations International.
"In 2017, Destinations International made the decision to prioritize equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) as a strategic goal for the association and we have come a long way in five years," he said. "To continue to develop and advance strategies to achieve this vision, it is critical to continue to benchmark data from members, and track and measure progress on behalf of the destination marketing and management industry."
Sophia Hyder Hock, chief diversity officer at Destinations International, remarked, "Our latest study demonstrates some of the great work our destination organizations have done in the field of EDI since 2020." She added, "We fully acknowledge that there is still work to be done but it's important to reflect on the small ripples of change today, which hopefully lead to waves of systematic change for our future."
"Continuing to measure EDI within destination organizations is critical for the industry," said Melissa Cherry, chief diversity and inclusion officer/SVP at Miles Partnership and member of Destinations International's EDI Committee. "Not only are we able to celebrate progress and growth, but we can also continue to maintain a snapshot of overall workforce demographics and perceptions on EDI to track organizational commitment to implementing EDI strategies internally, as well as within their local hospitality communities."
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