Women have a lot to celebrate in the travel industry. But how do we avoid complacency? How do we continue to attract more women (and men)? And how do we do better? The women speaking at the Women in Travel Summit have some pretty good ideas.
I have a confession: I couldn’t attend the ATAS Women in Travel Summit yesterday. I was registered, I was all prepped and then my daughter came down with a fever and had to stay home from school. So I couldn’t go to an event I was looking forward to attending. It happens to most of us. And it happens more to women.
But thanks to an amazing colleague (shout out to Karryon’s truly inspirational partnerships manager Haley Janssens), technology and the pandemic’s push for us to embrace said technology, I was listening (in almost real time) to the panels. And I found myself saying over and over again, yes!
Here, at the Swissotel in Sydney was a group of passionate women given time and a safe space to say what we’ve likely all been thinking. It was not a pity party or a forum where grievances were aired. There was a sense of celebration, yes, but also what sounded like practical solutions to very real issues.
So let’s talk about time.
Nicola Strudwick, sales general manager at Travellers Choice, hit the nail on the head (because women are good with tools).
“No disrespect to my male colleagues in the room, but as women, we tend to just get on with it,” she said at the Summit.
“When we’re given a task, we just make things happen.”
Time is not a luxury many of us, male or female, have. And that can mean deep structural or cultural issues can be waved through because we’re simply too busy doing our jobs.
“What we often don’t do,” Nicola says, “is speak loud enough.”
And Abbé Lunn, Intrepid Travel’s key partnerships manager agreed.
“Just keep talking,” she said.
“Challenge traditions.”
“You know, what? I can’t do a meeting at 9am. Is it gonna hurt you to do it at 10?”
“And implement wellness into conferences.”
“I am so burned out,” Abbé said. “I am so tired.”
“The mental loading of a female we all know is probably a lot higher than the male mental loading.”
Add to this, massive staff shortages across the industry, a boom in travel bookings and the weight of a little thing we refer to as a global pandemic and burnout is not uncommon.
“I think there is a duty for our businesses to look at that and maybe work towards refuelling our tanks.”
Is flexibility enough to attract and retain staff?
Lyn Wells, a travel consultant for American Express Global Business Travel is a career frontliner. And she very much credits “the huge technological developments in travel for empowering women to stay in the industry”.
“Suddenly you no longer have to sit in an office and print out tickets and send them out. You can do everything remotely. And that I think that has empowered women who are still traditionally the major carers, looking after children or elderly parents.
“Being able to work at home is a huge win for our sector.”
But not everyone (think cabin crew and hospitality staff) can work from home. So how else can we attract and retain staff?
Air New Zealand is doing some amazing things in the space.
“We’ve pledged to increase our number of women leaders in the business from around about 30% now to over 40% by 2025,” Air New Zealand’s Australian general manager Kathryn O’Brien said at the Summit.
“And through that we have started a number of initiatives.”
“To be able to present flexi leave now, where up to 80% of your salary will be paid over 26 weeks, where you’ll continue to accrue annual leave and superannuation… I mean, that is a big, big step for any organisation, and a big commitment. But a worthwhile commitment.”
“And one of the things that I think the business does exceptionally well is promote opportunities within the business,” she said.
“There’s this great agile model, where people can work across functions. And I think that’s something that’s helped retain people and keep them engaged, and also promotes personal and professional development as well.”
But what if you’re a small business?
“I adore Air New Zealand and our big business partners who can implement all of these wonderful initiatives,” Travellers Choice’s Nicola Strudwick said.
But what of the smaller business that aspires to do the same, but may not have the ability, she asked.
“There’s a real opportunity to support people with culture,” she says.
“There’s an opportunity to build a wonderful experience for staff in your business.”
And according to Nicola, that means creating an environment in which your staff feel free to engage in “open and frank conversation”.
“So every opportunity that you have, engage with your team. Ask how can we make that happen? And how can we implement that across the business?”
“I think that the more people feel engaged with a business, and feel they have a voice, and their voice actually means something that can implement change, that really kind of keeps someone attached,” she said.
But what about the men?
“We’ve got great men and colleagues in the room. So we want to make sure that [the travel industry] is welcoming for them as well,” Nicola said.
“We’ve got to have an industry that’s really quite diverse. It’s open. It’s supporting of diversity, whether that’s male, female or other. And I think that’s really important that we don’t lose sight of that.”
AFTA says the Women in Travel Summit will also inform the development of a white paper on personnel for its work with Government.
