Can the travel industry offset the DEI backlash? 

by Mia Taylor

In January 2025, Donald Trump returned to office as president of the United States and within days, the cultural transformation was underway. Trump immediately began signing executive orders to shut down all support for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the United States, while also putting the staff in federal diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility offices on paid administrative leave.

It wasn’t long before businesses throughout the United States began following Trump’s lead. Nearly immediately, travel brands and companies, many that are household names like Amazon and Walmart, began abandoning DEI funding, programs or initiatives, or renaming and rebranding such efforts to be more acceptable in the Trump era. In the month of January 2025 alone, one in eight companies in the U.S. said they would eliminate or reduce their DEI efforts.

And in such an environment, companies that only paid lip service to DEI now have the clearance needed to drop such efforts altogether. All of which leads to questions about what the future of diversity and inclusion will be in the travel industry – an industry built on the very idea of welcoming and connecting people from all walks of life.

How the travel industry is responding to DEI

A number of travel companies have held firm on DEI in the Trump era, publicly staking out their positions on a suddenly controversial topic. That includes Delta Air Lines and Intrepid Travel, both of which have stood their ground amid the winds of change.

During an earnings call in early February, for instance, a Delta executive said that DEI is ‘critical’ to the Atlanta airline’s business. Around the same time, Leigh Barnes, president of Intrepid, Americas, said: “At Intrepid Travel, we remain unwavering in our commitment to DEI, regardless of shifts in federal policies.”

However, others have fallen in line with an administration set on undoing any policy perceived to be “radical” and unduly supportive of people from all walks of life.

Disney, a long-beloved entertainment giant that owns National Geographic, landed on the opposite end of the spectrum. The company changed its DEI programs to instead emphasize “business outcomes.” Meanwhile, Southwest Airlines’ vice president of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion underwent a title change and became the vice president of “Culture & Chief Inclusion Officer.”

Further changes in the industry were brought about by Trump’s Commerce Department, which abruptly fired five of the 11 members of the Brand USA board. Those dismissals included  Brand USA’s chair, Destination DC CEO Elliott Ferguson. The destination marketing organization for the United States, Brand USA is funded and operated by government and private sector entities.

And of course, there’s yet another type of fallout being experienced amid the new Trump regime and its hostility toward DEI, travellers the world over have begun avoiding travelling to the United States altogether, including Canadians. In April, the International Trade Administration (ITA) revealed that arrivals of non-citizens to the United States by plane had declined by more than 11 percent since March 2024.

Separate data released by Statistics Canada showed that Canadian visitors to the United States have dropped precipitously. For instance, in June 2025, the number of Canadian-resident return trips by automobile from the United States totalled 1.3 million, a steep decline of 33.1 percent from the same month in 2024.

How women are filling the DEI void

As is so often the case at pivotal moments in history, many women have stepped in to fill the void, or are courageously continuing their efforts to lead the way on DEI, pressure be damned.

JourneyWoman spoke with some of the women who continue to support DEI at this critical time, to gather their thoughts about the changes now unfolding and what the future may hold.

Those conversations began with Alessandra LoTufo Alonso, Managing Director, Women in Travel CIC, who has spent decades working to elevate women’s voices and expand gender equity, particularly in the travel industry.

Her efforts have included launching the first International Women in Travel and Tourism Forum (IWTTF) in London, UK, two decades ago, and then, nine years ago, founding Women in Travel CIC, a social enterprise dedicated to connecting underserved women to jobs and entrepreneurship opportunities in travel, tourism and hospitality.

Over the years, those powerhouse efforts have earned London, England-based Alonso a variety of awards and recognition over the years, including being named by the travel industry publication Skift as one of a handful of women who are “shaping the future of travel” as disruptors and leaders. Alonso is also the recipient of the first JourneyWoman Lifetime Achievement Award in partnership with Wanderful in 2021.

Yet amid all of the progress that Alonso is driving in the world, she too acknowledges the seismic shock DEI has experienced as a result of what’s taking place in the United States, and the ripple effect on many organizations around the world.

“Because there’s absolutely no doubt that’s what’s happening,” Alonso says, of the hit DEI is experiencing

She is not alone in acknowledging this change. Zina Bencheikh, Intrepid Travel’s managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, has been candid about what’s taking place as well. Bencheikh gave a speech in London at this year’s IWTTF gathering in June, where she acknowledged the “all-war on DEI inside the US government and outside of it.”

“As soon as Trump returned to the White House, he ordered the shutdown of all federal DEI initiatives, urging the private sector to follow suit,” she told those gathered for the event. “Large corporations like McDonalds, Meta and Ford have scaled back or rebranded their programmes in the US.”

In speaking with JourneyWoman, Bencheikh expanded on those thoughts. “With Trump and similar people leading big western countries, I think there is a shift,” Bencheikh says. “When you have a person in office like Trump, who can say racist things and go to the extreme of what’s not right, then everything is possible.”

“Trump enabled this culture of not caring,” Bencheikh adds.

Women’s role in the path forward

In a world where DEI efforts are under siege, women are finding a multitude of ways to respond and maintain such important and meaningful efforts.

The legions of women entrepreneurs around the world are a particular cause for hope amid the current climate. Because, as Alonso explains, when women get involved in entrepreneurship, purpose is often at the heart of what they do.

“Women often have this bigger vision, this desire to extend the benefits of what they’re doing not just to their inward-looking family, but to the broader community, and that’s something that is consistent globally. When women thrive, communities thrive, and for communities to thrive women need to thrive,” she says.

Women entrepreneurs – those many small and micro-entrepreneurs that populate the travel and tourism sector – set up from day one with a vision and mission that says “I’m going to do this for myself, and for my kids and for my family. But I’m also going to make sure the destination and the community and the traveler are brought along on a meaningful journey,” stresses Alonso.

Iris Serbanescu, founder of wmnsWORK, a tourism business accelerator focused on providing women and non-binary entrepreneurs with the education and mentorship needed to succeed in business, offers similar insights.

Not only do women want to create a better workplace, but they want to create a better world. Meaning that in addition to continuing to spearhead DEI professionally, they are supporting change through spending choices as well.

Intrepid Travel’s line of women’s expeditions offer a real world example of what that looks like in practice. The expeditions were created to break down barriers and foster important discussions, while also offering local women employment through locally led experiences. The trips also support women-owned and women-operated businesses, which are added to Intrepid’s supply chain.

Bencheikh says the women’s expeditions have never been growing so fast as they are now.

“One of the things we are seeing through the women’s expeditions is that women want to support women and want to have a meaningful impact with their purchases,” Bencheikh points out. “There are a lot of ways to make change, whether it’s hiring decisions or buying decisions.”

More reasons for hope

Beyond the efforts of women specifically, there are other reasons for hope as well with regard to the future of DEI in the United States and the world. Most importantly, the future lies with all of us, the people on the ground, both travel industry employees and the travel consumers.

Whatever the leadership might say, people “still want to feel like they belong, they still want to feel included,” Alonso explains. “So ultimately, there is unfortunately a sort of setback and a step back for DEI, but people are very much still living and breathing inclusion.”In other words, we’re living at a time when there is a disconnect taking place in the world between what those who hold positions of power may be saying and doing, and what the people on the ground continue to actually want and need. The result, as has become abundantly clear, is a very polarized environment.

And over the course of history, when this type of polarization has occurred, individuals and organizations who are committed to a cause, not only remain steadfast in their positions, but often they begin shouting even louder.

Alonso says she has faith this will be the case once again.

“It’s a question ultimately of accountability and allyship,” she says. “We all have to ask the question ‘What can we do?’ or ‘What can I do?’ We all have a role to play.”

What women can do to support diversity in travel

 1. Use your wallet to show your support: As travel’s top decision makers and influencers, women can choose where to invest their dollars by choosing companies that authentically support diversity and equity

2. Ask companies how they are supporting diversity: Before making a booking or spending decision, ask a company about their DEI policies and practices. If a company is dedicated to this issue, it is more likely to be forthcoming with such information. In addition, companies that are truly dedicated to DEI typically include their efforts prominently on the company website.   

3. Choose women-owned and led companies to travel with: Look at a company’s leadership team and make sure it’s reflective and representative of diversity. JourneyWoman’s Women’s Travel Directory, which features women-owned travel businesses, is a good place to start.

More on Women in Travel