Women in Travel (CIC), the social enterprise dedicated to empowering women through employability and entrepreneurship in the travel industry, will host a meetup titled ‘Technology is a Girl’s Best Friend’ and mentoring workshop at World Travel Market (WTM) London on Tuesday 5^th November 2019 from 3:30pm – 6pm.

The seminar will be sponsored by the University of Surrey and held in collaboration with Women in e-Travel, an association of professional women from the digital travel industry who aim to increase women’s visibility and promote 50/50 leadership. The session, which will take place in the South Gallery rooms 20 and 21, will discuss how technology empowers women in travel and how more women can be encouraged to embrace it.

During the seminar, research undertaken by the University of Surrey will be discussed in-depth with panelists, who will include Diana Robino, Senior VP of Global Tourism Partnerships at Mastercard; Anna Jimenez, Senior Partnerships Manager at Kayak; Dr Cristina Figueroa-Domecq from Marie Curie; Taru Aalto, CEO of Wowanders; Patricia Gonzalez, Founder & CEO of Alterhome.es; and Mo Talukder, Co-founder and Director of Sales and Business Development at Geotourist.

Following the panel discussion, pre-bookable group mentoring sessions will take place from 4:30pm to 5:30pm allowing attendees to meet with speakers and other established industry figures to discuss relevant topics around technology, entrepreneurship and more. The session will finish with informal networking, which will give attendees the chance to exchange ideas with their peers and leading industry figures.

Those interested in taking part in the free mentoring session at WTM from 4:30pm – 5:30pm on Tuesday 5th November can register here: bit.ly/MentoringWIT.

Women in Travel has several other events taking place at this year’s WTM. These include an interview between Women in Travel’s Founder, Alessandra Alonso, and the celebrated explorer, filmmaker and activist Céline Cousteau at the Americas Inspiration Zone from 2:00pm – 2:45pm on Monday 4^th November. Furthermore, on Tuesday 5^th November, Women in Travel will host a seminar titled ‘How Can We Use Travel and Tourism to Stimulate Women Empowerment and Gender Equity in the African Continent’, which will take place from 1:30pm – 2:15pm at the African Inspiration stage.

Speaking about Women in Travel’s attendance at this year’s WTM, Alessandra Alonso, the Founder of Women in Travel (CIC) said: “We are delighted to be hosting three events at World Travel Market, and are excited to showcase influential women in the travel industry, who will discuss key topics as the rising trend of women in technology. We are also delighted to be collaborating with Women in e-Travel and the University of Surrey.”

Professor Nigel Morgan, Head of The School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at the University of Surrey, added: “The School of Hospitality and Tourism Management (SHTM) at the University of Surrey is a strong advocate of equality, diversity and inclusion. The promotion of gender equality is a key value of the School and underpins not only our educational programmes but also our working practices. The School is also home to a number of leading researchers, who work in the broad field of gender equality and diversity in tourism, hospitality and events management to influence policy and practice and to further knowledge creation. As such, we are delighted to collaborate with Women in Travel at WTM2019 to support women’s networks to create a more inclusive world.”

For further information on Women In Travel, visit www.womenintravelcic.com.

ENDS

NOTE TO EDITORS
Image Captions:
Image 1: Women in Travel (CIC) logo.
Image 2: Alessandra Alonso, founder of Women in Travel (CIC).
Image 3 (from top to bottom): University of Surrey logo, Women in e-Travel logo.

About Women in Travel
Women in Travel (CIC) started life as a gender focused platform at World Travel Market flagship event in London, in 2014. Growing successfully from then onwards, in 2017 it was incorporated as a social enterprise dedicated to empowering women through employability and entrepreneurship in Travel Tourism and Hospitality. Its vision is to become a catalyst for sustainability by placing women at the heart of an industry which is inherently attractive to females and growing at a fast pace. It is the brain-child of Alessandra Alonso, who has been recognised as a trail-blazer when it comes to gender diversity in the industry and who has supported women in maximising their opportunity in the travel, tourism and hospitality (TTH) industry for well over a decade, originally through Shine & the Shine Awards. Women in Travel partners with employers to provide the first Women Returners service through which the industry can access a pool of marginalised but often highly skilled women who are eager to get back to work. Women in Travel also runs entrepreneurship focused events, mentoring and networking supporting start up and early stage female entrepreneurs and those wanting to start a business, particularly of BAME background.

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