Percentage of female CEOs in B2B travel sectors
1. Hospitality schools - 29%
2. Business travel - 26%
3. Trade media - 24%
4. Lobbying groups - 18%
5. Tradeshows & events - 16%
6. Investors - 14%
7. Consortia - 10%
8. Travel tech - 8%
9. Cruise - 7%
10. Aviation - 6%
11. Car rental - 6%
12. Hotel distribution & sales - 5%
SOURCE: Belvera Partners
Women make up only 12.4 per cent of CEOs in the world’s top 350 B2B travel companies according to a report.
The figure is even fewer for chairperson roles at 12.1 per cent according to the data which is from PR company Belvera’s B2B Sustainability Report 2021.
A closer study of the data reveals that business travel is one of the best performing segments within the B2B travel world with women making up 26 per cent of CEOs and 23 per cent of chairperson roles.
Segments such as hotel distribution and sales as well as aviation do not fare well with women only accounting for five per cent and six per cent of CEO roles, respectively.
Roman Townsend, managing director of Belvera Partners comments: “Sadly the results of this research don’t come as too big a surprise to me and I suspect many others in the industry will feel the same way.
“We were determined to establish the data to generate further discussion around this important topic. We have also looked at how many of the top 350 B2B travel companies are led by a non-white person and we'll be releasing that data soon: spoiler alert, the figures aren’t encouraging.”
Only hospitality schools beat the business travel segment when it comes to women in the top roles.
Recent research from Phocuswright revealed travel organisations were falling behind on leadership initiatives.
The 2021 Gender Equity Study revealed that 46 per cent of men rate the industry as good or excellent when it comes to gender equity in career development and management opportunities compared to 26 per cent of women.
The research also revealed 59 per cent of men see more leadership opportunities available to all compared to 29 per cent of women.