Destinations International is committed to transforming destination communities through thought leadership, best practices and tools based on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion principles to empower our members so their destinations excel.
In 2019, Destinations International launched its first study to benchmark the diversity of our destination member organizations to advance our conversations on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion by examining the demographics of board leadership, executive leadership and some general policies. In August 2020, we looked to further document and collect baseline data by directly surveying individuals within the Destinations International membership to help establish a snapshot of our workforce examining overall demographics and perceptions on EDI within their destination organizations. We know it will be critical for destination organization leaders to embrace the role that equity, diversity and inclusion will play to move our industry forward, especially at a time when our industry must face one of the most challenging moments in modern history to recover from the devastating impact on the travel industry due to COVID-19.
The following summary report outlines baseline results, collected from 718 respondents, identifying age, gender, title, racial ethnicity, sexual identity, religion, ability and military veteran status. Additionally, nearly 20 statements on EDI were developed to measure how destination organizations and staff embrace equity, diversity and inclusion.