Tales from the Front Lines - Ayesha Patel, TTAND

TravelPulse Canada is proud to support Travel Advisors around the globe. Our "Tales From The Front Lines" series is designed to give consultants a voice during the COVID crisis and bring professionals together. Enjoy today's submission.

I have been in the travel industry almost two years now. If someone told me 6 months ago that the entire travel industry was about to change, perhaps forever, I would have never believed them. But here we are.

The world has come to a standstill and we are being held hostage by a dangerous virus that has crippled the world in more ways than one. Booking travel for my clients, let alone getting them to even think of their next vacation has been non-existent. My professional social media presence has also been absent only up until recently. I have started to bring the idea of travel slowly alive by posting photos of exotic places and using creative wording to promote once in a lifetime vacations on social media, carefully nudging that the world is slowly re-opening around us.

I have also been using my free time to do a lot of on line training with suppliers, and getting to know more about their products. It was difficult to get motivated at first without thinking about the uncertainty of when I would be able to use this knowledge and convert it to sales. Having not much else to do though, it eventually became a routine and I was able to tackle more training on a variety of products than I normally would have pre-Covid-19.

However, I also became aware of something that seemed rather contradictory to everything that "travel" represents. It stood out in the marketing material almost all across the board as I was going through training courses for various travel companies: photos of people in brochures almost always were Caucasian. As an ethnic minority myself, I could hardly find any photos that represented someone who looked like me enjoying the vacation experience being advertised. In fact, I realized ethnic minorities were GROSSLY underrepresented in the marketing material unless they were shown either as staff or inhabitants of their native country. This portrayal was indiscriminate and was reflected in luxury brands all the way down to entry level brands.

Whys is this? Travellers come from all corners of the Earth, whet their appetite by seeking that which is different from what they already know and desire to see the world in ALL its diversity. Why then are the ones who revel in the curiosity and excitement of travel, being represented by just one group? The travel industry caters to a heterogeneous clientele but, sadly, this representation is greatly lacking in the travel and tourism marketing realm. Everything travel related is going to change post-Covid-19 and that should include setting a new precedent on how a traveller looks. We need to evolve how we promote our products and services and be more cognizant of our brand's representation and the message it conveys. I encourage all suppliers within the travel industry to immerse the world in all aspects of your marketing arena and captivate the colourlessness of the human spirit.