U.S. and Canada Tourism Boards Show Slow Progress on Diversity
Photo Credit: U.S. and Canada Tourism boards are slow to diversity their workforce, new survey shows. Unsplash / Miguel Bautista
Skift Take
Bold leadership is what destination marketers need to shake up complacency when it comes to DEI. Maybe, as Skift guest columnist Carol Cain said back in December, it's more about changing who's in the DMO driver's seat?
While some progress has been made over the past two years on diversity equity and inclusion (DEI) in the travel industry, real change in uprooting the status quo is taking longer — particularly at the destination level.
Destination management organizations (DMOs) in the U.S. and Canada have significantly improved on providing training and education programs that mitigate unconscious bias, and diversity in marketing has also strengthened. But the needle hasn’t moved when it comes to hiring a diverse workforce and DMOs are also failing to incorporate DEI principles into the organization’s meetings and long-term planning.
That’s according to the survey results from the 2022 EDI study of destination management organizations, led by Destinations International and now in its third edition since launching in 2019. The survey was sent out in
