Industry Confidential

The sports tourism industry still can’t get DEI right. After over two years of diversity work, our industry still has a long way to go.

We are still amidst a national reckoning in this country. Founded on “liberty and justice for all,” we have prolonged our struggle with the stark inconsistency that not all men and women are treated equally. We work in the outwardly neutral profession surrounding tourism, sports tourism, and event planning and are involved in the continuance of cultural inequalities. In the last couple of years, we have seen improvement, but the rate of progress is troubling.

As killings and protests became the norm on the daily news, our industry, among many others, took notice. Some organizations, including destinations, event rights holders, national governing bodies, and vendors, rushed to show solidarity through social media. Suddenly, we experienced a sense of urgency among C-level executives, human resource departments, and public relations pros to shift to representation highlighting all of humanity, especially those who identify as people of color. Compared to other industries, we were no different, though we have a ton of work yet to accomplish.

We have witnessed some organizations in our industry make formal pledges to improve diversity within their operation, holding themselves accountable to change. Others have hired people of color. Boards of directors are attempting to become more diverse, while some have even worked to establish guidelines for equitable compensation and career advancement for people of color. This action is taking place, and it’s thrilling.

Though still, we as an industry can do more. The organizations within our sector remain overwhelmingly white. Us, as we emerge from a stressful time tarnished by a global pandemic and characterized by a social justice effort, we can shift our values through our actions while conducting business. We can proactively build an industry that includes everyone, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or physical ability, which is welcome to contribute and supported to succeed.

With all that said, the effort has settled down, and we are allowing this moment to pass without making considerable changes. Each organization within sports tourism should summarize why the standards of diversity, equity, and inclusion at their respective places of business are essential. They, too, should identify and prepare an action plan as to what they hope to accomplish over the next three to five years. A few social media posts do not get the job done or solve anything. You cannot just say you care about the work and then do nothing.

Regarding DEI, I’ve developed a certain level of pessimism. Because if we were to challenge organizations in our industry to establish a DEI action plan, I feel most would fail to articulate their desire to achieve quantifiable goals. Though it would not be a particularly difficult task, I foresee the action plans being vague and lacking substance. We can succeed only what we can measure; therefore, organizations should include quantifiable goals—for example, increasing the number of people of color through new hires by a certain percentage over a specific period. But, organizations must strategically invest and plan in organizational diversity to accomplish a goal such as that. Will they?

Soon, I want to see organizations prove their DEI claims by acting on their intentions for change and building by using a broader community to achieve annual goals. Outreach to every population sector will be essential so that no one feels left out. Marketing personnel must build campaigns and collateral relevant to all ethnic groups to enhance a sense of inclusion. I also hope to see our industry build better relationships with higher learning institutions including historically black colleges and universities, thus providing opportunities earlier to students making career decisions and providing the industry with a more diverse pool of job candidates. Organizations must also get creative by crafting internal programs that encourage the perspective of cultural experiences within management teams that can help design a supportive workplace environment for everyone.

We are almost back to pre-pandemic business and societal practices. Therefore, I hesitate that we’ve already forgotten the public outcry from the last couple of years as an industry. Furthermore, I struggle with believing that most organizations will strive to make a change but rather be reactive when faced with protest and instead follow a path of least resistance. I’m confident most will be motivated by hesitation, in that we will see organizations make safe decisions rather than risk the social fallout from an unintended mistake. Therefore undoing the valuable progress, albeit tiny and slow, of DEI. As John Wooden said, “failure isn’t fatal, but failure to change might be.” Few leaders will likely realize this.

I’m sure that some believe our industry has changed. I feel as though we are nowhere near where we should be. To those who disagree, I present a simple challenge… dare to do better and prove myself wrong.