Expedia Group’s Senior Manager for Inclusion & Diversity, Veronica Velazquez, outlines why travel industry players should come together and accelerate the sector’s diversity and inclusion (D&I) efforts.
At Expedia Group, we are guided by an inclusive purpose; to bring the world within reach, reflecting the diverse backgrounds and experiences of our employees, customers, partners and communities. We have the privilege of working daily with so many important travel partners across different lines of business. They include air, lodging, car rentals, etc. With these relationships in place, we realised that we have the opportunity to lead our industry to new heights in equity, inclusion and diversity.
As Melissa Maher, Expedia Group’s Chief Inclusion Officer & Senior Vice President, Marketing and Industry Engagement, has pointed out: “A diverse workforce creates a more creative, more productive environment with increased trust and less fear; an environment where employees, and in turn, the companies, thrive. As travel leaders, we have an amazing opportunity to bring the world within reach and champion change in our industry and in our companies, committing to making our industry a better, more inclusive environment.”
DIVERSITY & INCLUSION ACTION
That’s why in October 2019 Expedia Group’s CEO Mark Okerstrom signed the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion pledge, and committed to mobilise the travel industry toward actionable steps to promote D&I. CEO Action Diversity & Inclusion is the largest CEO-driven business commitment to advance D&I within the workplace. Over 1,000 companies have already signed up to date.
The pledge includes commitments to four key areas:
- To continue to make our workplaces trusting places that enable complex, and sometimes difficult, conversations about diversity and inclusion.
- The implementation and expansion of unconscious bias education.
- To share best – and unsuccessful – practices.
- Create and share strategic inclusion and diversity plans with our board of directors.
When Expedia Group signed the pledge, less than 2% of signatories were in the travel industry. However, given that one in 10 jobs globally is in travel, we felt there should be a stronger commitment from our industry to this topic. So Expedia Group launched the Inclusive Travel Subgroup earlier this year, (as reported). We invited travel partners to come together to share best practices, learnings and challenges in order to accelerate the travel industry’s D&I efforts in a safe forum.
INCLUSIVE TRAVEL GOALS
As a D&I travel subgroup, we’re focusing on the following:
- Promoting allyship, intersectionality, inclusive language and inclusive workplaces.
- Sharing resources such as Ally Action Cards and Multimedia Resource Guides, and Anti-Black Racism Resources.
- Hosting deep dives and trainings on topics that are key priorities for travel companies.
- Acting with equity in mind during the pandemic.
- How to best support under-represented identities, such as employees of colour.
- Arranging roundtable and video conference discussions to convene partners regularly.
- Continuing to meet quarterly while sharing resources.
- Coordinating research to highlight the current state of D&I within the travel industry.
- Launching gender diversity in travel research.
- Preparing to publish research on supporting travellers with disabilities.
- Promoting inclusion and diversity conversations at industry events.
- Hosting Ally Skills training at Phocuswright Europe.
- Meeting with fellow signatories at CEO Action’s Closed Door Summit.
TRAVEL SUBGROUP MEMBERS
To date, 30 partners have joined us on this journey. Companies, such as Alaska Air, Avis and Virgin Atlantic have confirmed they are already reaping the benefits of the partnership. Additionally, the number of travel signatories to the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion Pledge has increased 40% since we signed up last year.
We are always open to new partner conversations. Let’s navigate this shared inclusion journey together. If you are interested in joining the Inclusive Travel Subgroup, please contact EGInclusion@ExpediaGroup.com.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Veronica Velazquez is Expedia Group’s Senior Manager for Inclusion & Diversity. She joined Expedia Group in 2019 as a Global Inclusion Manager with a focus on external audiences and brand. Her team’s purpose is to bring the world within reach, reflecting the diverse backgrounds of our employees, travel partners, consumers/travelers, and communities. Her current role involves empowering partners to have a larger business impact through building more inclusive workplaces and products, facilitating inclusion-related workshops, driving external benchmarking and best practice sharing of our inclusion efforts, and leading inclusion communications and education across and outside of Expedia Group.
Before joining the Expedia Group’s D&I team, she spent five years at Unilever, rotating through different sales and marketing roles before becoming the D&I Lead and pushing the team to attain global recognition. Her background in marketing, including a B.S. in Marketing from Rutgers Business School, combined with her family’s Hispanic ancestry and growing up around diverse communities, motivated her to pursue inclusion in the corporate world.
Sign up for our newsletter
