PRSA Travel 2018: Minorities in Travel Panel
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MINORITIES IN TRAVEL //
I was honored to be brought out to New Orleans to speak at the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Travel Conference on Minorities in Travel and the disparities in minority travel advertising.
MINORITIES IN TRAVEL:
WHAT TO KNOW:
1.
African Americans spend $50 billion/year on travel. market, and the fastest growing niche travel group. Latino American families spend close to $63 billion/year! But the African American market is poised to take the lead.
2.
As general travel is declining in the US, Black travel is the only market still rising, exponentially.
3.
Despite that large spending trend, only 2.6% of ALL advertising is even focused on African Americans. We are a largely untapped market, exploring the world on our own fruition, without being sold an itinerary.
4.
For African Americans, travel has always been filled with roadblocks. In the ‘40s to travel safely w/i the US, AAs had to rely on Victor Hugo's “The Negro Traveler’s Green Book” to discern which establishments were black friendly and which were not.
Victor Hugo's “The Negro Traveler’s Green Book”
cartagena, colombia. 2018
#WETRAVELDIFFERENT:
THREE TAKEAWAYS
1.
Group travel is twice as popular among African-Americans than whites, possibly for a sense of security in numbers as well as the proliferation of black interest clubs and professional groups
2.
We also travel for different reasons. African Americans travel internationally in search of the diaspora and culture. We love seeking out beautiful pockets of blackness in countries like Greece, Amsterdam, and Colombia.
3.
We travel to attain all different kind of experiences. Some to see other people like them, some to see people who aren’t like them. Some to have fun and see the world, some to find themselves, and some to lose themselves.