Book Discussion #4 & Final Summary- Mindful Travel Abroad

Thanks to all who attended our fourth DEI Initiative book discussion on May 5, 2021. In this final session, Dr. Anu Taranath graciously and generously offered advice and reflections to help bring our discussions together and figure out where we go from here. What an incredible treat to have dedicated facetime with the author to review our collective work exploring the themes of Beyond Guilt Trips: Mindful Travel in an Unequal World.

For this reflection session, Anu addressed the following set of questions and comments raised by attendees (via post-event survey, online forum, or during a live book discussion). Key highlights from our conversation have been paraphrased below.

Prompt:
Anu, since your book has come out, what has surprised you the most and what has been the most common question you get asked, your answer, and why you think that is?

Reflections:
In a year of so much uncertainty, the pause has given everyone some capacity to reflect on what they’re doing. This pause has helped readers sink into the concepts a bit better and go a little deeper than we might have.

A common question Why aren’t there more conversations about racial equity in the U.S. with the broader global inequities that international travels raises for us? The traveling lens we travel with is ours to keep and use abroad or here at home in the U.S.

Prompt:
What tactics have you seen to be the most successful, and on the flip side, what kind of difficulties or mistakes have you seen people or organizations run into and what are your recommendations on how to avoid them?

Reflections:
Successes:
– The development of an ETC DEI community and the collective work initiated. Well done everyone.
– In doing this work, facilitation is now part of my [Anu’s] ethos. I’m always thinking about how we can plug in and be present.

Recommendations:
– Baby steps. You don’t have to be a world-class facilitator to plug in and create space for engagement. (i.e., Practice with family, friends, familiars; We are practicing facilitation without calling it that!)

Prompt:
As many of us are currently working to implement some of the strategies outlined in your book, team members may encounter pushback or a lack of understanding or support from peers or leadership. What advice do you have for how we might respond to pushback or hesitation and inspire peers and leadership to prioritize this work.

Reflections:
This important work is a marathon, and fatigue will naturally find its way into the cycle of progress. The momentum that started in spring 2020 is frayed to the point where some may not be as enthusiastic about continuing their journey. It’s worth recognizing how managing frayed emotions can be harder than working alongside a surge of “wokeness”.

Deliver a thoughtful and salient value proposition. Communicating the ROI will carry more sway than moral persuasion, sadly.

Be prepared to confront common arguments against investing and prioritizing this work. Examples may include:

—“Making clients uncomfortable with the truth will take business from us.”
—“Our travelers don’t want this.”
—“It’s just too much to manage on tour.”

Here is some initial language to help you prepare your counter argument approach to formulate your value proposition:

—Learning about the world more honestly doesn’t mean it’s not pleasurable.
—Consider opening up the perception/definition of what “enjoyment” means.
—Discomfort around inequity already exists – people ARE experiencing it, but most of our travelers don’t have the tools nor the opportunity to grapple with it in real-time, on-tour, and in-person.
—A good trip means you are engaged; that’s what sets our trips apart. Our work gives us an opportunity to engage people more thoughtfully
—This work is holistic and cohesive across an institution. We can be involved in racial equity at any time, any location. The invitation to step in and be a human is available at all times. It doesn’t have to be fragmented.

Prompt:
One theme that has come up in several of our discussions has been around meaningful diversity and inclusion within our memberships and constituencies, particularly given the reality that most of the Planner and Operator communities are white or white-owned. What is your advice for attracting more diverse membership and ensuring that the experiences we can offer inspire confidence and are genuine and inclusive?

Reflections:
To foster more diverse ETC membership, as a community we should take pause to ask how we may or may not be:

—Building a reputation for welcoming folks who are non-members. How and who are you subtly inviting, not inviting or uninviting?
—Coding language to promote identity, awareness, and inclusion. People need to be seen and heard to feel welcomed.
—Creating dedicated space to grapple with historically disenfranchised and underrepresented populations within the travel industry.

To encourage greater participation from existing ETC members to engage with and promote DEI initiatives, as a community, we should try to bridge dialogue across the various industry roles (operator, planner, destination, etc.) to explore strategies from each vantage. Kindly refer to the book for questions you could ask to start the conversation and engage in radical listening:

—“Changemakers live in different pockets of the planet and come into the conversation with different identities. We all have roles to play. I am a changemaker. You might be one too.” (p. 202)
—“The questions we ask and research, of course, will not ameliorate everything that needs fixing, but they can help us take more responsibility regarding our choice of program, how much and to whom we are giving our money, and what our participation means to the local people. We can then take more intentional action that helps more than harm, and works to dismantle unjust structures of power. (p.192)
—Appendix: Especially for Education, Program Directors, Leaders, and Coordinators (p.209-229)

Prompt:
One of our discussions focused on mindful travel abroad and strategies for addressing uncomfortable conversations while traveling. It was helpful to discuss hypothetical situations about how we might address certain experiences, but in the moment, it can be tricky to bring up issues such as race, differences, guilt or inequality. What advice would you have for a travel host or tour director who sees the need/value for a conversation about race and structure while on tour but personally isn’t well-versed in facilitating such conversations?

Reflections:
Do you want to elevate engagement on tour? Here are some recommendations:

—Inspire buy-in. Share the value proposition with travelers and literature to raise consciousness.
—“Low-stakesify-it!” Create low-stakes, regular opportunities to engage in mindful travel.
—Diminish its importance. If you have only one hour for a “special visit”, you don’t need to “oversell/overhype” the experience.
—Create & manage expectations. Begin mindful conversations with travelers prior to departure. Remember, small and gentle conversations have sustainable outcomes.
—Review your itineraries and identify moments that could benefit from some ‘time to process or reflect’. It could even be during a bus ride.
—Hold space with humility. Stay humble, curious and open to whatever unfolds. “Travel promises fresh starts.” (p. 196)

Facilitating conversations: “If we don’t know how to read, how can we teach others?”

—Self-reflection and learning–It is a tall ask to have a Staff Host have these conversations with a group of random travelers without basic training and practice. (E.g. SCUBA certificate)
—Practice–If we haven’t had the opportunity to look at things on our own, it is a big ask to do this with people that you are just getting to know. No wonder we get so flustered!
—Use this book as an anchor to start having these practice convos (Remember: small and gentle).
—Create space. Give participants an ability to take a breath–
—These sample exercises are ways to democratize (not individualize) the feeling. They aim to reduce the stigma and prevent people from being bogged down in their own shame/guilt/etc. (yup, that soupy guilty feeling.)

Example 1: 10 min convo after seeing something
—Write a letter about the experience we had this morning; or
—Write a TIPS letter: Select something that recently impacted you: a Thing, Idea, Person, or Self and write to them your thoughts/reflections
—This exercise demonstrates to pax that 1) their reflection matters; 2) reflection space will be available; 3) being able to revisit an experience helps them engage with what they will be experiencing by outlining a cohesive connection to future engagement.

Example 2: Name it to tame it
—You could say to travelers, “That experience probably created a range of feelings – what are some words that came to mind?”
—Write it on a board
—Share it

Join us next time!
We invite you to join us on June 17 from 2–3 PM Eastern. We will hold a space for an open discussion about a recent article that appeared in nationalgeographic.com: “Our honest, hidden thoughts on race captured in just 6 words” by Michele L. Norris. (thank you Mary Barnett from SITA World Tours for sharing this on the forum or with the DE&I Community passing this along!).

We invite you to check out the article in advance (15-45 minute read) and take part in sharing your reflections. (Read the article by visiting, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/our-honest-hidden-thoughts-on-race-captured-in-just-6-words)

Some potential conversation starters include:

– What about the article resonated with or surprised you?
– Do you have 6 words you’d like to share with the group?
– In what ways does this article affect the way you think about your work in affinity travel?

As time permits, we will open the conversation up to the group to share thoughts on future DEI programming: what’s working in your programs, where you’d like more support and resources, etc.

Please register by June 16 to receive the zoom link.

Visit https://smith.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwpdO6hrTsqHdeJ4UbgTRi4CAEWu0u6nP-K to register for the next meeting.