I recently participated in a panel about Diversity in Tourism and how those in the tourism industry can best speak to multicultural and multi-ethnic audiences. This is an especially close topic to me personally because I try to see at least four to five countries a year and have had some unique and not so comfortable experiences at certain locales when I show up all black and ready to enjoy my vacation. Some (not all) of the places I’ve traveled to don’t see many African American faces, and often times the staff demonstrates that diversity is not baked into the customer service training programs.
Yes, in 2012!
You’d be surprised but those of us working in the multicultural space of marketing communications know that this is real and an area that we help to hurdle for different brands and companies daily. What many of those working in tourism are coming to realize is the buying power of African Americans, Hispanics and the LGBT community and that they spend money on travel as well. Big money. The economic impact of African American travelers alone is estimated at $48.3 billion. And with their dollars and good experiences comes loyalty and Word of Mouth recommendations that if positive can be worth gold, and if negative, can truly hinder a brand (think amount of stars on sites such as Trip Advisor, Yelp, etc.).
One of my key points about the African American consumer is that by knowing facts such as African American women make 85 percent of purchase decisions in their households and most desire to be pampered on their travels, designing packages that speak directly to those women can lead to an increase in awareness of that location and repeat visits. It’s finding that intersection between what is unique to a destination, knowing what drives the consumer’s travel decisions (cost, friends and family, “hotness” factor) to tap into the shared values with the consumer that will lead to them choosing that particular spot.
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