An outreach initiative known as Tourism RESET, co-directed by Stefanie Benjamin, assistant professor in Retail, Hospitality & Tourism, is setting out to change the tourism industry as we know it by amplifying marginalized voices and experiences to implement equitable change.
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Founded in 2010 by Derek Alderman, professor and former department head in Department of Geography in the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, College of Arts & Sciences, Tourism RESET is âa multi-university and interdisciplinary research and outreach initiative that seeks to identify, study, and challenge patterns of social inequity in the tourism industry.â The initiative seeks to press the âresetâ button on the traditional tourism industry by enforcing the belief that tourism development can be tools for racial reconciliation and empowerment. Currently, the network of scholars and research fellows hail from 25 different universities.
âIâm excited that academic research is being disseminated beyond academic journals or paywalls,â explains Benjamin. âWe need a culture change â one where our research doesnât just sit in academic journals, but also works toward tangible and actionable goals.â
While the research conducted by the Tourism RESET team encompasses a vast number of struggles within the tourism industry, including human trafficking in hospitality, animal welfare in tourism, inclusion of people with disabilities, and the continuing power issues related to gender in economically developing and developed contexts, Benjaminâs research with Alana Dillette, co-director of Tourism RESET and assistant professor at San Diego State University, has focused primarily on the BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color) Travel Movement (BTM).
According to Benjamin, âThe goal of our work is to take a deeper look into the nexus of marginalized travelers, specifically BTM leaders and the representation of BIPOC experiences within a predominantly White-washed touristic landscape.â
The two researchers partnered in May 2020 with NOMADNESS Travel Tribe, a travel group created almost a decade ago by content creator and community leader, Evita Robinson, to create and disseminate the 2020 BIPOC Diversity Travel Report: Trends + Insights. In order to âtell a story with the numbers,â the team focused on NOMADNESS members who identified as Black and interviewed several Black travel influencers, bloggers, and community leaders, all of whom shared one thing: the message that Black travel is not a monolith. Benjamin and Dillette recently published an opinion piece about this work entitled âBlack Travel is Not a Monolithâ for AFAR magazine.
Through their research, Benjamin and Dillette prove that academics can partner and collaborate with industry leaders and that the two entities need one another to elicit and advocate for equity. The researchersâ work also creates an environment where tourism stakeholders understand that, in order to be truly inclusive, they must move beyond performative acts of solidarity âlike the black square seen on numerous corporationsâ, businessesâ, and influencersâ Instagram feeds last summer at the height of the 2020 Black Lives Matter Movementâ toward a deeper sense of belonging in the tourism landscape.
Other groups, such as the recently-founded Black Travel Alliance, have also made calls for accountability and equity in tourism. Benjamin and Dillette are partnering with the BTA to create a âHistory of Black Travelâ in an effort to show that Black travel has taken place for centuries, both for exploration and for leisure, but most people are unfamiliar with early explorers and tourism pioneers. For the initial launch in Spring/Summer 2021, the History of Black Travel timeline will have 130+ entries from the Americas, focusing mostly on the United States. âThis will be an ongoing project,â says Benjamin, âand when it is complete, will be the most comprehensive and robust recording of Black leisure travel through the centuries!â
Click here to learn more about Tourism RESET and their current projects.