I’ve been watching with astonishment as companies roll back – or just go quiet on – their diversity initiatives from the past decade. This has me wondering: can a company really have values? Can “corporate values” endure beyond the founders or leadership at the time? And what does this mean for Arival?
Can Companies Really Have Values?
Those companies retreating from previously stated values – did they not believe in those values when they started their diversity initiatives? Were they just following a social trend?
What about today? Are they now being sincere in their rollbacks? Or are they once again just going along with the prevailing political winds?
What about the seminal McKinsey work on the correlation between more diverse management and better financial performance? I recall organizations frequently citing this as they undertook investments in DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion).
Diversity Is Inclusive
I’ve also been struck by the growing characterization of diversity initiatives as exclusionary. Everyone with whom I’ve engaged on this topic seems focused on a single challenge: how can we make our industry more inclusive, more welcoming? How can we include more voices?
We have deliberately focused on this at Arival, in our company, in our content and research, and in our conference programming. Travel experiences is the most complicated, diverse and fragmented sector of global tourism. There are 150+ business categories under the umbrella of tours, activities and attractions. There are companies of all sizes, structures and offerings. Companies from every corner of the world. Founders and professionals of all backgrounds, genders, orientations, ages, abilities, and political and religious perspectives.
We want all of them to feel welcome at Arival.
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CEOs of Companies of All Sizes
Arival has always had – and always will have – the CEOs of the biggest brands in our industry on our stage. We don’t have any say on how diverse these CEOs are (the travel experiences sector, however, does have more women CEOs and business owners than the broader travel industry).
However, we have also made a deliberate effort to feature a diverse array of speakers from small businesses. There are so many operators creating innovative, unique experiences and surfacing stories that have never been heard. It’s this extraordinary Long Tail of smaller operators that has driven much of the growth and innovation in our industry.
Here are just some of the many extraordinary sessions we’re proud of:
- Akila McConnell of Unexpected Atlanta delivered one of the best Arival talks ever on tackling difficult, politically charged topics on a tour. She also discussed the importance of using inclusive marketing imagery to help different customer segments feel like they would belong on your tour. You can watch her full talk here. (I highly recommend it!).
- Stacey Toussaint of Inside Out Tours shared her story of building a business that focused on the untold stories and less experienced side of New York, from the Underground Railroad to the Harlem gospel tradition.
- Zakia Moulaoui shared her story of starting social enterprise Invisible Cities, whose tours offer alternative stories of each city’s history and people. Each tour is led by someone who has experienced homelessness.
- The incredible Chrissy Watts of Philly Experiences spoke of how she came up with the idea of – and built out – ”tours in the hood,” alternative tours exploring black culture and community in Philadelphia.
- Rebecca Fisher of Beyond the Bell Tours gave a talk on how they design tours that explore the history of the LGBTQ+ community, women, protest movements and other lesser known stories from the history of Philadelphia.
- Lorelei Clinton, Manager of Black Streak Canyon Tours and member of the Navajo Nation, shared a rare glimpse into what happens behind the scenes in Indigenous communities working in tourism, and how others can engage respectfully with the peoples and lands they visit.
None of these speakers may come from the biggest, most “important” companies in our industry. But when each of them took the stage, they inspired our audience. Each became the most important tour operator in our industry at that moment.
Beyond Center Stage
There’s much more to our efforts than just keynotes on our main stage.
- LGBTQ travel influencer Ravi Roth has emceed our conference and Arival TourReview Spotlight Awards. (BTW – if you’re ever looking for an emcee, hire him. He’s a tour de force.)
- Houston Vandergriff of Downs & Towns, an outstanding travel photographer who is also a young man with Down syndrome, served as our event photographer for Arival Las Vegas 2022. (This is personally meaningful to me, as my wife and I prepare our son, who was also born with Down syndrome, for adulthood).
- Our CCO Bruce Rosard has assembled leaders at the intersection of travel and diversity, including Alessandra Alonso of Women in Travel CIC, Roni Weiss of Travel Unity, Karin Aaron of The Greenbook Experience, Greg Takahara of Tourism Cares, and many others, to develop workshop tracks on how intentional diversity efforts across hiring, training, product design and marketing can advance business goals and performance.
- Our COO Lynne Fetterman has assembled women’s leadership meetups and forums at Arival events to advance growth opportunities for women across our industry (thank you to Sarah Dines, Viator and Alexi Tabrizi, Big Bus who helped get these events going). We are partnering with wmnsWORK to create programming specific to the challenges women face in the industry.
- We partnered with the San Diego Tourism Authority’s Tourism Accelerator to provide scholarships to up-and-coming experiences businesses who wanted to attend Arival 360 | San Diego last year. We continue to provide scholarships to small businesses that demonstrate need.
- Our marketing team works behind the scenes to create accessible design for those with visual disabilities, and ensure the photos on our marketing content and event collateral represent the wide range of people who attend our events.
Prevailing Winds vs. Enduring Values
Divisive social issues present a challenge to any company that serves a diverse audience, especially when an organization and its leadership are expected to take a stance or issue a policy. For travel experiences, are diversity and inclusion not central to our industry’s purpose? We bring people together. We are trying to get people to travel to us, to take our tours, visit our attractions. We strive to make them feel welcome.
Prevailing winds be what they may, the data supports this. A range of consumer research tells the same story (as does Arival’s own research on travelers.) A majority of consumers – and a significant majority of younger adults – support diversity initiatives and brands that align with their social values. (However, views of DEI practices in the workplace have become more negative.)
At Arival, we want travel experiences businesses of all sizes and types, and industry professionals and operators of all persuasions, perspectives, cultures, ages, abilities and orientations to not only attend but to feel welcome, to feel like they belong, to feel like they have a voice. We will continue to seek them out and invite them to share their insights on our stages.
We recognize that, for that to happen, we need to continue learning and moving forward as an organization. We need more representation of a diversity of voices on stage. We need more data that tracks leadership diversity in our sector. We need to remain committed to our enduring values.
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It’s About People, Not About Politics
More than 20 years ago during my days as a journalist, I interviewed Al Vivian, a diversity consultant in Atlanta. I’m sure he doesn’t remember me, but I’ll never forget that conversation: he said diversity and inclusion are not just about race, gender, religion or sexual orientation. It’s also about ideas, people and personality types, and learning to engage effectively with others who just think and operate differently. It makes me think of the natural, almost universal tension that can exist in diverse teams. If harnessed effectively, it can be a boon for an organization. If not, it can lead to destabilizing conflict.
There are many other people who have been important contributors to Arival in our diversity efforts – too many for me to include everyone here. But thank you. And thank you especially to the extraordinary Arival team, who work by these values every day. You will see this when you attend one of our events. This is who we are.
One more thing. This includes team members past and present, and one shout out to our former VP of Content, Stephen Joyce, author of Arival’s LGBTQ+ Experiences Traveler report, an advocate, mentor, and friend.
If you have a story you’d like to share at Arival, or know someone else you’d like to see on an Arival stage, let me know. And hope to see you soon.
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Header photo: Arival Managing Editor Janelle Visser and Founder of Philly Experiences Chrissy Watts take a selfie on the Arival stage | Arival.
