Introducing WeTravel’s Academy Resource For Women – And Men To Support Women

WeTravel Academy launches its Women In Travel arm of its Academy to provide a collective of resources, articles and opinions by women in travel that will change how travel businesses operate to support the UN's Agenda for Sustainable Development (achieve gender equality and empower women and girls, sustainable development goal five)

When WeTravel launched its WeTravel Academy in December 2021, it was to create a free resource for travel professionals to educate, equip and empower their business to Be Better. 

We started with 12 subjects from inclusive travel to sustainability to wellness. We spoke to our users to crowdsource subjects that would be relevant to them. We collaborated with industry experts to co-create courses and eBooks. We’ve hosted Women In Travel webinars. We’ve tackled industry-pressing questions on climate change and social justice. 

In the past four months, we’ve seen how powerful the Academy has become for industry professionals to learn and grow their business, whatever their travel-specific needs may be. So, we’re churning out more content, partnering with more businesses on co-branded content and courses, and crowdsourcing more ideas. 

While the Academy content will continue to represent all genders, backgrounds and experiences, we want to dedicate a space within the Academy to host content that’s by women, for women – and men to better support women. 

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, “Tourism has a pivotal role to play in achieving the objectives at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular the commitments to gender equality and empowerment of women of Sustainable Development Goal 5 (achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls).” 

In tourism’s workforce, women make up the majority of positions, concentrated in the lowest paid and lowest status jobs. Women also perform the lion’s share of unpaid work in family tourism businesses. Quite frankly, these data points are unacceptable; instead of looking at women as a percentage to improve, we need to humanize women in tourism and give them better representation in the industry. Women need to be empowered–through income, resources, employment status–to better the tourism industry. 

Enter: The Women In Travel Academy

Our commitment is to bring BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, cis women, any individual who identifies as a woman or with femininity, including transwomen, transfeminine, and non-binary individuals, together, in one place.

Not only will the Women In Travel content provide a paid opportunity for women to educate their peers (if you want to write, please send us a message at social@wetravel.com), it’ll provide a safe, welcoming space for learners to find takeaways from fellow travel professionals – that are personal and relevant to them. 

In collaboration with other women and external partners, we will dive into topics on climate intersectionality, eliminating gender pay gaps, inclusive travel, parental leave policies that actually work (hey, newsflash, free travel isn’t a perk for parents!). We will work together to create a collective of narratives that impact women in the travel industry – we will encourage men to use these resources to better support women within their travel business.

As a mom, Indigenous Canadian and an experienced travel professional, I cannot be more thrilled to be part of this collective, to learn from those who know better than I. We will continue to report on the impact of the Women In Travel Academy, evolving the content to fit the industry’s needs.

We look forward to hosting a place for your stories. For any submissions, thoughts or feedback, please send us a message at social@wetravel.com; we want to hear from you.

*We have used the terms “female” and “women” in this article to refer to any individual who identifies as a woman or with femininity, including transwomen, transfeminine, and non-binary individuals.