Women in Travel (CIC), the social enterprise dedicated to empowering women through employability and entrepreneurship in the travel industry, hosted a networking breakfast in collaboration with the executive search firm Odgers Berndtson on Tuesday 5^th November 2019.Held at Odgers Berndtson’s offices on London’s Cannon Street, the breakfast was well-attended by female travel industry professionals from tour operators and travel companies, along with entrepreneurs, activists and influencers.

The morning event began with a welcome talk from Women in Travel (CIC)’s Founder, Alessandra Alonso, who updated attendees on Women in Travel’s most recent initiatives, such as the successful schedule of events run by BAME Women in Travel. The BAME Women in Travel initiative, which was officially launched earlier this year, assists black, Asian and minority ethnic women in the travel and tourism industry to fulfil their economic and individual potential through customised training and mentoring services aimed at fostering entrepreneurship and employment.

Alessandra discussed the forthcoming first International Women in Travel & Tourism Forum, which will be held in Reykjavik, Iceland on 23-24 January 2020. Registration is now open for the event, which has a heavyweight speaker line-up and was developed by Women in Travel CIC in partnership with Promote Iceland, Carnival UK and PEAK DMC. Iceland’s First Lady, Eliza Reid, has confirmed she will be sharing her experience and views on gender equality in Iceland and within the tourism sector at the Forum, and attendees already confirmed include a mixture of global private and public sector travel, hospitality and tourism industry trailblazers. Unlike other events tackling gender imbalance in the workplace, delegates must commit to attend in a duo: to qualify, an executive-level senior leader must pledge to attend with and host a next-generation female colleague.

Attendees at the breakfast also had the chance to network and take part in a raffle, in which Rosanna Neophytou from Tucan Travel won a necklace from Shimansky.

Speaking at the breakfast, Alessandra Alonso, the Founder of Women in Travel (CIC) said: “In 2017 I decided that my call for women empowerment was too strong to be ignored, so I set up Women in Travel as a social enterprise. Our aim today is to amplify the voices of the women who are not in their desired positions in the travel industry and we are looking forward to further cementing this aim when we host our first International Women in Travel & Tourism Forum in January.”

Eulanda Shead Osagiede, Executive Director of BAME Women in Travel, added: “We were delighted to meet with so many travel industry professionals during Women in Travel’s networking breakfast at Odgers Berndtson and talk about the ongoing success of the BAME Women in Travel initiative, which was launched earlier this year. We feel it is vital for travel companies to consider women of colour when talking about female development, so our aim is to play a key role in providing resources, networking opportunities, training, and events focused on making advancement within the travel and tourism industry more accessible.”

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

ENDS

NOTE TO EDITORS
Image Captions:
Image 1: Alessandra Alonso with Eulanda Shead Osagiede, the Executive Director of BAME Women in Travel (CIC).
Image 2: The Women in Travel breakfast was well-attended by female travel industry professionals from tour operators and travel companies, along with entrepreneurs, activists and influencers.
Image 3: Alessandra Alonso with Holly Addison, Principal at Odgers Berndtson in London.

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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