Almost as suddenly as having a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) program became a corporate must following the racial reckoning of 2020, a backlash has seen a wave of challenges and lawsuits to those policies.
And travel companies have not been exempt.
In one of the most high-profile cases, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ appointees abolished DEI programs at Walt Disney World after taking control of the theme park’s governing district last summer.
On Nov. 1, the nonprofit America First Legal filed complaints with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission calling for investigations into DEI initiatives at American, United and Southwest airlines.
Even the Alaska Airlines door plug incident prompted Elon Musk and other conservative commentators to question whether DEI policies had contributed to issues at Boeing.
Behind many of the challenges is the hope among those who are opposed to DEI that after a Supreme Court ruling last year ended affirmative action in college admissions, a similar precedent could be set in the corporate world.
Stephanie Jones, CEO of Blacks in Travel & Tourism, said it is difficult to quantify whether companies in travel have pulled back on their DEI programs because there is no central listing. A 2023 study from consulting firm DDI found that, overall, the number of companies without DEI programs in place increased 33% since 2020 but does not single out travel.
Martinique Lewis, president of the Black Travel Alliance and the co-founder of the new tour company Black In, has been issuing Diversity in Travel Scorecards since 2018 that measure how the travel industry addresses diversity, including race, gender, ability and sexual preference. She said that many travel companies have retreated on the DEI commitments they made in 2020.
“The industry gets a D for fulfilling those pledges,” she said. “Whereas we know budgets are lower, there is still no excuse not to have [diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion] top of mind in everything you do. It’s 2024, plain and simple. Do better.”
‘There is still no excuse not to have DEI top of mind in everything you do. It’s 2024, plain and simple. Do better.’
Lewis said there are many brands and destinations that are “doing things right” when it comes to DEI, including Tripadvisor, Expedia Group, United, Alaska Airlines and Hurtigruten, as well as destination marketing organizations (DMOs) from Milwaukee to Jacksonville, Fla., and New York.
Corporate social responsibility expert Bea Boccalandro, who has consulted for both Caesars Entertainment and Disney on their DEI strategies, cited data showing progress: Bloomberg research indicates that since 2019, more than 80% of S&P 500 companies have increased the percentage of employees of color and the percentage of Black directors on their boards from 4% to 8%.
“So, let’s be clear: Businesses have made meaningful progress on DEI over the last four years,” Boccalandro said. She added that while the challenges “complicate the DEI path forward, these hurdles are unlikely to reverse or even stall progress, for two reasons. First, the anti-woke critique is spurring more effective ways to pursue social justice. After all, some of it is legitimate. Second, companies know better than to capitulate to the demands of those opposing DEI. Their employees, customers and investors have made it clear that they are pro-DEI.”
Rather than curtail DEI, she said, some companies are changing their approach.
“The business leaders I know might be adjusting what DEI they do and how they communicate it, but they are not retreating,” she said, recalling a technology company executive who said: “Many more people would dislike us for not enough DEI than for too much.”
‘Business leaders might be adjusting what DEI they do and how they communicate it, but they are not retreating.’
Jones also noted a change in how DEI is communicated, saying at least one prominent travel industry entity is “reconsidering no longer using that term, instead referring to it as ‘social impact,’” which she speculated was because some of its members that received federal funding “would rather distance themselves from DEI to avoid any political ramifications.”
Many travel brands and destinations are not only continuing to prioritize and expand their DEI initiatives but are doing so loudly.
Elliott Ferguson, CEO of Destination DC, said that pushback or not, the travel industry “will never go back to not having this as a part of the conversation.”
“What we focused on was empowering individuals who are working for companies at all levels to make sure that this is a part of the conversation. Period,” he said. “And that’s not going to change.”
Commitment to DEI often depends on why and how those programs were implemented to begin with, Ferguson added.
“It’s a matter of which companies are taking this seriously and doing it because it’s the right thing to do versus doing what they think will satisfy or appease an individual audience for a period of time,” he said. “Did you do this because in 2020 you were mandated to jump on the boat because everybody was doing it, or is it now a part of the curriculum?”
Ferguson said that one of the big parts of the conversation he has had with people, especially when he was chair of the U.S. Travel Association, is that while the travel industry overall is very diverse, a lot of that diversity is on the lower end, similar to the rest of corporate America.
“It still remains an issue as you go closer to the top of the pyramid,” he said. “Are the CEOs, which skew white male, truly understanding and taking responsibility and making this a priority and having the conversations that are necessary as we look at moving forward?”
