The State of Gender Equality in the Travel Industry

On August 26, 1920, women in the United States received the right to vote. That momentous day would later become Women’s Equality Day, a day to remember and reexamine gender equality across all areas of society, including the travel industry.

When it comes to the travel industry, women have always held a strong place. In terms of consumers, women make 80 to 85 percent of travel decisions and comprise two-thirds of all travelers. Among travel agents, 76 percent are women.

Women make up the primary amount of employment in the travel industry and have the highest purchasing power, but unfortunately, gender disparity exists, especially in the top ranks of the travel industry.

Look at the aviation sector. Despite it growing at a rate of 5 to 10 percent each year, women pilots only make up 5.2 percent worldwide. This stagnant number is even worse among U.S. airlines like American, Delta, and Southwest, which only employ “4.9, 4.8 and 4.1 percent women respectively.”

The cruise industry is doing a little better, but not by much. Women make up 18 to 20 percent of the cruise industry workforce, while 5.4 percent of cruise officers are women.

The picture worsens when you consider the U.N. Women’s 2010 Global Report on Women in Tourism. The organization found that even though women make up a large amount of the tourism workforce, they’re mostly represented in “service and clerical level jobs, but poorly represented at professional levels.”

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Furthermore, they’re earning 10 to 15 percent less than their male counterparts, and only one in five tourism ministers worldwide are women. Gender equality in the tourism industry? Not by far.

There is one sector of the tourism industry that gives cause for celebration though: tour companies.

Women-only tours are one of the most popular and fastest-growing sectors in the travel industry. They seem to be having some positive impact on female travelers, female-owned companies, and the economic status of women in developing countries.

Wild Women Expeditions is perhaps one of the best known women-only tour companies beloved for hiring female guides and taking women on amazing adventures around the world. Women-owned tour companies like the boutique-y, Femscape Sojourns, are just as empowering as the larger tour companies like WHOA Travel, which also has a WHOA Plus segment to encourage plus-size female travelers to adventure travel together.

Intrepid Travel is arguably one of the most impressive tour companies. For the last few years, Intrepid has made an active effort toward gender equality in all levels of their operations.

They doubled their female tour leaders six months before their target goal and fought against the Moroccan government to open government-regulated tour licensing to women. Sixty percent of Intrepid’s staff in 120 countries are women, and they added two women to their Board of Directors making it a 60:40 gender ratio.

One of the most significant things they’ve done is to launch five Women’s Expeditions in 2018 to countries where women have traditionally not had an equal opportunity to economic empowerment. They provide local women employment as tour guides and provide them with job opportunities through community-based tourism projects in Myanmar, Vietnam, Turkey, and Istanbul.

This is significant when you consider a study by the TreadRight Foundation which found that tourism that promotes women’s economic participation would boost global economic growth by $12 trillion by 2025.

Aynur Gok, one of Intrepid Travel's female tour leaders in Turkey, explained, “In many countries, including Turkey, women aren’t as educated as men and often don’t often work, and in turn, they do not have much independence. That’s why projects promoting gender equality are so important: they give a voice to the female community and empower them to be able to support themselves.”

“It feels amazing to work for a company that supports women,” added Gok. “I’ve experienced it myself and seen first-hand how local women on the ground benefit from tourism. Intrepid’s style of travel provides an opportunity for women to financially support themselves while empowering them to believe in their talents and abilities.”

Intrepid Travel isn’t the only travel company that’s putting in the effort to help promote gender equality around the world. Choice Hotels is working to bridge the gap by providing six franchise agreements to African-American women to develop new hotels across the U.S. and Caribbean, and Disney Cruise Line is sponsoring four scholarships at the LJM Maritime Academy for female cadets who wish to become ship captains.

Yes, there is hope for gender equality in the travel industry. As one of the most successful tour companies in the world, Intrepid Travel’s gender equality business model and initiatives show that significant success can come from balancing a workforce and helping women rise into leadership positions in the tourism industry.

On Women’s Equality Day, I would call on the female travelers around the world to realize how much power they hold as consumers and put their money toward companies that are working to bridge the gender equality gap in terms of the workforce, pay, and leadership positions.

To travel companies: make gender equality one of your leading initiatives – it’s the right thing to do.