April 28 - The world’s leading Travel & Tourism leaders pledged to work towards women’s equality and boost female representation in leadership roles in an announcement before the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).

 

The commitment came as WTTC, which represents the Travel & Tourism private sector, launched its Women’s Initiative, at its Global Summit in Cancun, with the help of 18 Grand Slam singles title winner, Martina Navratilova.

 

WTTC President & CEO Gloria Guevara unveiled the public-private-academic partnership to promote diversity and drive inclusivity which will help lead the way to achieving equality for women throughout Travel & Tourism.

 

It led to the signing of the WTTC Cancun Women’s Declaration to support women, which recognised their contribution around the world and the importance of an equal equitable environment to enable them to thrive as leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators.

 

The drive committed signatories to provide equal opportunities for women by removing barriers, ensuring fair treatment, and encouraging greater financial, professional, and social independence.

 

For the private sector in the short term, the Women’s Initiative has two core elements; developing skills and creating formal sponsorship and mentorship programmes for young women in business.

 

It will encourage women to bring in new ideas and skills to broaden the wealth of experience and expertise from women at all levels across the entire Travel & Tourism sector.

 

Senior women leaders will also be empowered to become mentors and share their skills and experience with the next generation of female Travel & Tourism leaders to nurture and develop new talent.

 

Where possible, companies will also be asked to assign a senior executive or Board member to be a sponsor for gender diversity and inclusion, who is accountable for progress.

 

The private sector pledged to increase female representation of leadership positions by 30-50% and aim toward increasing by a third, the representation of women to board levels and C-suites, by 2030.

 

There will also be a commitment to identify opportunities to reduce any gender pay gaps and implement gender diverse slate requirement for all open roles and to each year share progress and publish an action plan to achieve their goals.

 

According to WTTC data, in 2019 before the pandemic struck, the Travel & Tourism sector accounted for 10.4% of global GDP and supported the livelihoods of 334 million people.

 

Under the theme “Uniting the World for Recovery” the Global Summit made history this week by becoming the first-time global Travel & Tourism event where leaders gathered together since the COVID-19 ravaged the sector and halted all major events around the world in March 2020.

 

 

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