We are pleased to announce that work has now started on our yearly research into the status of diversity and inclusion across hospitality, travel and leisure to be published 5th February 2020. We are delighted that The MBS Group (for the second consecutive year) and PwC (for the third consecutive year) will support WiH2020 with what has become the leading voice on diversity and inclusion collaboration across HTL.

The 2020 Report will focus on two key areas of the diversity and inclusion journey: Gender (for the third year) and Race and Ethnicity (for the second year). It will explore progress made by companies across the sector both in terms of increasing the percentage of women and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic employees at senior leadership level as well as making meaningful changes towards creating a diverse and inclusive organisational culture.

The Report will feature a variety of examples of how CEOs, Chairs and HR leaders from companies across HTL are joining forces, sharing, collaborating, being inspired by and inspire other organisations across the sector to challenge stereotypes and bias, give opportunities to all to grow and progress and continue to build our industry as truly welcoming of everybody whatever their background might be.

For the first time, the Report will include the findings of an extensive survey of HTL employees adding their voice, expectations and contribution to the D&I debate across our industry.

The WiH2020 Annual Report launch will be hosted by PwC at their Embankment offices in February 2020 in a series of events for Chairs and Non Executive Directors, CEOs and HR Directors.

Tea Colaianni, Founder and Chair of WiH2020, said: “I am delighted to be working again with Elliott Goldstein at the MBS Group and Jon Terry at PwC and their teams to assess the status of D&I across hospitality, travel and leisure and share the amazing collaboration taking place in this area across the industry. We will showcase big and small examples of D&I in action. Our third annual report promises to be the most impactful and interesting yet!”

Elliott Goldstein, MD and Partner at the MBS Group commented: “Promoting diversity is a core principal for us at The MSB Group, so we are honoured and delighted to partner with WiH2020 and PWC on the research and publication of the 2020 Report. We hope that the analysis and presentation of diversity data across our sectors will unambiguously assess the true status of women and other minority leaders within Travel, Leisure Hospitality – and will act as a powerful catalyst to wholesale change. Furthermore, by showcasing examples of best practice within our sectors, we hope that the 2020 Report will provide some practical and useful guidance to companies throughout the sector looking to genuinely become more diverse.”

Jon Terry, UK Diversity and Inclusion Consulting Lead at PwC, said: "At PwC, we recognise that promoting diversity and inclusion is the right thing to do, but we also recognise from a business perspective, a diverse workforce drives innovation, improves working environments and enhances customer service. We are delighted to be collaborating with WiH2020 and the MBS Group for another year of this report - shedding a light on this incredibly important issue for the hospitality, travel and leisure industries.

For any information about the Report or the February launch, please contact info@wih2020.com

Our research, in partnership with The MBS Group and PwC, is based on diversity data and interviews with CEOs, Chairs and Human Resources Directors of over 120 companies across the sector.

Our analysis shows that the sector is making great strides towards the Hampton-Alexander target of 33% women in the FTSE 350 leadership teams by the end of 2020 - the targets WiH2020 was formed to help the industry achieve.

We outline below some of the most interesting data.

Tea Colaianni, Chair of WIH2020, said:

“The FTSE 100 is one of the strongest performing groups of the hospitality, travel and leisure sector for gender diversity and the improvements they have made mean they are just shy of meeting the 33% target for women on boards.

However, there is a widening gap between those who are performing well and those who are not. Currently, only a quarter of companies are at target for both board and executive committee/direct report measures.

The report also sheds light on a number of never seen before collaboration initiatives across the sector such as Comeback to HTL, the ground-breaking first ever cross industry returners programme.”

For the first time this year, we have looked beyond gender and shed light on the lack of ethnic diversity amongst the sector's senior leaders. The ethnic diversity data presents a bleak picture with only 3% BAME people in leadership positions across the Hospitality, Travel and Leisure.

Many companies were unable to provide accurate data on ethnic diversity, as they simply don't know it themselves.

Be Yourself - Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays