Ethical Marketing Goals | Intrepid Travel

How Intrepid Travel is tracking towards our 2022 ethical marketing goals

AUGUST 2022

By Leigh Barnes, Chief Customer Officer

Last year, we published Intrepid Travel’s first ethical marketing guidelines – the result of an 18-month reflection period, which challenged us to think about what it means to truly be an inclusive tour operator. Today, I’m sharing an update on our guidelines and how we’re tracking towards our commitments.

Over recent years, we’ve found ourselves in a world where performative posts and surface level signs of solidarity (I recommend reading Beyond the Instagram Black Square from The New York Times) must be replaced in favour of meaningful action and allyship.

At Intrepid Travel, we have always strived to use our business as a force for good, and when it came to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), we knew we had to step up and be better.

Instead of simply saying we were going to be better, we committed to doing the work.

We developed our ethical marketing policy in partnership with six consultants, who helped us with five commitments and 23 measurable actions to ensure we progressed our work to be more inclusive in our words, visuals and narratives. As a certified B Corp, we’re held to rigorous benchmarks as it relates to DEI, and our ethical marketing guidelines are an important part of us maintaining our certification.

I am super proud of how our team has rallied around these ethical marketing guidelines, and if you look at our Instagram grid or read our blog, The Journal, you’ll hopefully notice a wonderful breadth of stories that are truly reflective of the diversity of the travel industry.

This mid-year report is a reflection of progress more than anything. Out of our 23 measurable commitments, we have met or exceeded 13. But as we look towards our 2022 goals, we still have some work to do to ensure we reach them all.

Of our 14 public commitments specifically around DEI, we’re only on track for four, and we’re actively working to improve in the other 10 areas in the second half of the year.

In terms of commitment to transparency, this update today keeps us on track to deliver our four reports and updates.

For the rejection of neocolonialism, we’ve removed the word “colonial” as positive descriptor and have significantly increased the number of stories being told through the lens of host communities.

Beyond that, our community guidelines have been published and are being enforced and our digital compliance is at 100% across the board.

While we’re not perfect – in fact far from it – we are committed to being better and to working through our ethical marketing journey transparently.

Below I’ve shared a detailed progress update from January 1 – June 30, 2022.

I’ll share another update in early 2023 and we will continue to progress this work in the future to help build a more ethical future for travel and our storytelling at Intrepid.

In the meantime, if you have any questions or thoughts, please drop me a line or leave a comment.

Commitment 1: Diversity, equity and inclusion

Create allyship and improve representation of BIPOC travellers

50% (at least) of all content creators hired by Intrepid must identify as BIPOC creators

YTD: 85% (11 of 13 creators hired self-identify as BIPOC creators)

5 global partnerships per year with BIPOC-owned travel organisations

YTD: 1

50% (at least) of commissioned blog stories must be voiced by BIPOC travellers

YTD: 32% (12 of 37 stories)

25% (at least) of Intrepid's sponsorship budget annually goes to BIPOC events + community initiatives

YTD: 61%

20% (at least) of content creators hired (including talent, influencers, bloggers, production team) by Intrepid must be from the Black travel community

YTD: 38% (5 of 13 creators hired self-identify as Black creators)

Create allyship and improve representation of the plus-size community

10% of content creators hired (including talent, influencers, bloggers, production team) by Intrepid must be from the plus-size travel community

YTD: 0 (0 of 13 creators hired self-identify as plus-size)

20 photos of plus-size travellers will be shared on social media each year

YTD: 1 (1 out of annual target of 20)

5 pieces of evergreen size-inclusive content (authored by plus-size positive writers) shared two times per year, updated annually

YTD: 1 + 1 shares (1 and 1 of out of annual target of 5 and 10)

Create allyship and improve representation of the LGBTQIA+ community

10% (at least) of content creators hired (including talent, influencers, bloggers, production team) by Intrepid must be from the LGBTQIA+ travel community

2022 year-to-date (YTD): 8% (1 of our 13 creators hired self-identify as LGBTQIA+)

5 pieces of evergreen LGBTQIA+ inclusive content (authored by LGBTQIA+ writers) shared two times per year, updated annually

YTD: 0 pieces + 0 shares (2 and 2 out of annual target of 5 and 10)

10 stories published on The Journal (Intrepid’s blog) each year authored by LGBTQIA+ writers (not necessarily about the LGBTQIA+ experience)

2022 year-to-date (YTD): 2 (2 out of annual target of 10)

Create allyship and improve representation of the Indigenous community

10% of content creators hired (including talent, influencers, bloggers, production team) by Intrepid will be Indigenous creators

YTD: 1 (1 of 13 creators hired self-identify as Indigenous creators)

10 social media posts each year that amplify stories of Indigenous communities

YTD: 6 (6 out of annual target of 10)

5 stories published on the blog centered around truth telling of the impact that colonisation has made on Indigenous people historically and contemporarily

YTD: 0 (0 out of annual target of 5)

Commitment 2: Openness & transparency

2 public impact updates (published on our blog and social) that transparently look at our DEI and climate actions (This is the first, the second will be published after December 2022)
1 climate progress update (published mid-year) that transparently looks at our goal to reduce global emissions in line with a 1.5°C future by 2030. You can read that here.
1 integrated report (published annually) to provide full transparency on our business (including the ethical marketing guideline commitments) (Our 2021 report is here and our 2022 report is set to publish in March 2023).

Commitment 3: Reject neocolonialism

100% of internal image library assets do not portray neo-colonialism (no portrayal of saviorism, photo subjects have sense of agency, etc.)
100% removal of the word “colonial” as a positive adjective and descriptor in trips, blogs and social captions
20% of first-person social media stories are told through the community or host lens

YTD: 28% (8 of 29 stories told through the community or host lens)

Commitment 4: Sense of belonging

This commitment is about creating a safe and inclusive online community. We’ve published our global community guidelines here.

Commitment 5: Ethical Digital Marketing

100% compliance with Google’s webmaster guidelines through an annual audit

YTD: 100%

100% regional data usage and privacy compliance, specifically in our key source markets, including GDPR in Europe, CCPA in the United States, CASL in Canada and APP in Australia

YTD: 100%