Diverse Voices in Travel

Since cultural exchange is the very core of travel, you’d think diversity and inclusion would be inherent in the tourism industry. The reality is that these values still feel just out of reach—from the practice of parachute journalism (sending a journalist to report on a destination they’re not familiar with rather than assigning the story to a local) to the lack of representation in tourism at the leadership level, the effect of overtourism on local communities, and more, the travel industry’s issues are plenty. 

This is a theme that has come up in different ways throughout the five seasons of the podcast. So how are Soul of Travel Guests guests elevating diverse voices in travel and giving everyone involved in tourism a seat at the table?

Owning Your Voice as a Storyteller 

Storytelling offers one of the best opportunities to champion diversity. Travel media has begun to turn away from parachute journalism since the pandemic, instead encouraging creators to tell stories about places and communities they know best. As more creators rely on lived experience to inform their work, they begin to add new dimensions to the storytelling landscape and to the collective understanding of travel.

Photo provided by Nabila Ismail

Nabila Ismail, Pakistani-American travel creator and founder of Dose of Travel, is someone who leads by example. In her conversation with Christine, Nabila talked about how travel was considered a “luxury” when she was growing up, and solo travel as a woman was even less common in her community. By sharing her own experience of quitting her job to travel—and her family’s reaction to that life choice—Nabila inspires others in similar situations.

Lily Girma, a Season 4 guest, was born in Ethiopia, grew up in the Ivory Coast, then studied in the UK and US. During her Soul of Travel episode, Lily talked about her foray into travel journalism and experience founding Tourism Lens, a media platform with a focus on sustainable travel: “It takes time to develop your voice and to develop confidence in what you have to say, and to actually figure out what it is you have to say that's different from everybody else.” 

Photo provided by Shivya Nath

Diversity in storytelling isn’t just about the unique voice of the creator, but also the intention behind their work. When telling Christine about her path to becoming a best-selling author and founder of Climate Conscious Travel, Shivya Nath brought up the idea of ethical storytelling: “As travelers we can either show up in a place and just see what happens, or we can be a bit more aware about where we are going, why we're going, why we're spending time there…” She called storytelling a way to encourage readers to “think more about their choices,” saying, “It can have an impact on [readers], and it can definitely have an impact on the places that they're going through.”

By lifting up storytellers from a variety of backgrounds, we can create more human connection and understanding. Chantal Potgieter, director of Themba Travel, spoke to the significance of this during her conversation with Christine: “I can relate sometimes with [podcast] speakers and the stories they tell. And other times I'm learning… You can learn about something someone is sharing and you can listen to that experience. I think it's quite powerful.”

Amplifying the Voices of Locals 

Fostering inclusion in the travel industry is also about sharing the stories of locals in tourism destinations. Doing so can shape the overall impression of a destination and even impact the way tourism dollars are spent there. 

Dee Gibson, a British Sri Lankan designer and hotelier who founded boutique hotel Kalukanda House, laid out the importance of this in an episode from Season 5: “The news that we read about Sri Lanka is either about the landscape and the elephants or political strife. There's nothing about the people…” Whenever stories are told about Sri Lanka “from the outside in,” references to locals focus on their smiling faces and hospitality. The danger of that, according to Dee, is: “not only does it give people on the outside the wrong idea about a country, I actually think it attracts the wrong kind of investment, if any investment at all.” 

Photo from Unearth Women article by Nikki Vargas

Aneeqa Ali, founder and CEO of The Mad Hatters (a travel company dedicated to showing off the best of Pakistan), has had a similar experience with her native country: “People often have very different views about Pakistan because of the kind of news they've heard about it... So I think it's always great to also listen to stories from people who are living in that country to show the actual picture of how things are there.”

So how are storytellers amplifying the voices of locals? For one, there’s Aubrie Canfield from Season 4, who founded Actuality Abroad, a company that offers documentary travel experiences for those interested in telling travel stories, with a focus on encouraging ethical storytelling and responsible travel. When talking about the inspiration for her business, Aubrie said: “Photography and filmmaking as mediums have always given the power to the person holding the camera… Like it's our story. We get to be in control of the narrative. But that has a negative impact on the person on the other side of the camera.” 

Lily, who has written extensively about the Caribbean, insists on sourcing quotes from locals in her work: “I had a Caribbean story come out today. It wouldn't sit right with me to not have a Caribbean voice in there, or two or three...and balance it with the resort owners, [who are] often not owners of color.” 

In order to include diverse voices in storytelling, the burden is on the tourism industry to highlight destinations that may not get much exposure, and do so in a way that’s ethical and responsible. As is Aubrie’s goal with Actuality Abroad, focusing on “the difference between going somewhere to consume and going somewhere to connect.”

Photo provided by Chantal Potgieter

Chantal, whose company Themba Travel puts together travel experiences in South Africa, told Christine: “I find that, especially sitting around at a barbecue in South Africa, listening to different stories…it just opens up people's hearts so much. They just have that space now to share.” Elisa Spampinato, CEO and founder of Traveller Storyteller (a platform that gathers stories from “unheard voices”), agrees, saying: “When we talk about a cultural experience, to me being and spending time in the community—urban or rural, modern or traditional—is the most direct way to experience that community.” 

And once a traveler experiences a community, Chantal said, “It's not giving [communities] a voice, because I do believe they already have a voice. It's really just elevating that voice, it's making it a little bit louder.”

 Listening and Being Heard

This exchange of listening and being heard across great cultural divides is an important part of travel, and a crucial practice as we move toward greater diversity, equity, and inclusion in the industry. In their episodes, Soul of Travel guests shared some advice for those looking to share and promote diverse voices in travel. Dee encouraged people to “travel in the true sense of the world, rather than touristing—let's go and see how these other people across the world live and not just sit behind a sort of window and not engage.”

Addressing storytellers, Lily said: “I think my advice really is you have to know why you're producing the content you're producing, and what is it giving back to the world? It can't just be about you.” She encourages travelers not to think about telling stories from the place of being a savior: “It's not charity. It's an exchange…it's not your culture, it's not your heritage, it's what you're learning through them.”

Photo provided by Lily Girma

For Aubrie, it’s about the idea of “radical collaboration,” meaning “the person whose story you are documenting and sharing needs to have as much, if not more, control than you over how it is documented, how it is shared, and where it goes on to live.” This approach is not limited only to storytellers, but to “anybody who's out there documenting their experiences and sharing them with their audience, however large or small.”  

Sophia Hyder Hock, Chief Diversity Officer at Destinations International, commented on the importance of creating travel experiences that foster real connection: “There are different people with different backgrounds, abilities, perspectives that are coming to a place and they want to learn about your community. So how do you connect? How do you understand that? There will be differences, but how can you find connections of purpose and understanding how different people live and operate? How do you create that welcoming space?”

Elisa promotes the idea of community-based tourism, meaning “the community has to be the protagonist.” Although it’s not always possible for tourists visiting a destination for a short time to understand what makes a community tick, “it’s much easier to help the tourists to connect with another individual.... So one-to-one human-to-human, and through the story of another human being you can maybe start to understand what her or his community is.”

By focusing on seeking out authentic interactions when traveling, featuring local voices when sharing stories about a destination, and coming into our own as travelers, we can move toward a more inclusive experience for all. As Aneeqa put it: “Travel is something that brings people together…this is not something that can be done in isolation.”

If you are interested in this topic, listen to our Ethical Content Series shared in July 2024. These episodes feature Aubrie Canfield, JoAnna Haugen, Elisa Spampinato, Lebawit Lily Girma, Shivya Nath.