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"That no is a full sentence. It's ok to say no to things without providing volumes of rationale. I've seen male colleagues just say 'no' and women should feel more empowered and able to do the same."
I am the Chair of Women In Tourism. As a not-for-profit membership organisation I lead a Board of 14 passionate women to motivate, encourage and support women across the industry into positions of leadership. During the pandemic our role was on maximising the use of digital media to ensure we shared news, updates, supportive networks and areas for financial support with our community at large. One of our Board Directors is also the lead for Travel Technology for Scotland - a key tech partner in ensuring our sector leads the way.
As an organisation we recognise the importance of technology and ensuring tourism businesses up-skill across digital skills as we continue on our recovery from the pandemic. In my spare time I'm undertaking an Executive MBA at Edinburgh University - with digital transformation a key component.
In 2021 I joined the Scottish Governments Tourism Recovery Taskforce - a steering group made up of around 30 organisations across Scotland. The Taskforce were responsible for leading on a range of recommendations (both short and long-term) for Scotland to start to mitigate against the devastating impacts that COVID has had. I enjoyed working with a variety of organisations from all areas of the tourism economy to lead on this important piece of work.
We created WIT in June 2015, and formally as an organisation in March 2017. Our focus has been to develop a supportive network across Scotland and in that time we've led on a number of initiatives. We launched the Top 100 Women In Tourism in 2018 - a peer-nominated list of women (at any level) across the industry, doing great things. We re-ran this in 2020 and will be launching a 2020 WITTop100 very soon. We've commissioned research, hosted our first conference (with 120 attendees) and run dozens of events across the country. The pandemic has had a devastating impact on our industry. Hundreds have been made redundant, lost their business or had to retrain. The future work of WIT will be to see where can add most value and support for not just our members, but those working tirelessly across tourism.
At a senior (Director, CEO, Owner) level there is still a significant amount to be done to combat gender equality. In our role we support and have a mentoring programme - confidence and coaching for women is vitally important. We're more likely to wait for recognition or not shout loud enough and that shouldn't be how you attain a leadership role. More research needs to be commissioned, regularly, to see what change, if any, is being made. We'll be launching our own research project in 2022 to support this.
Within WIT we have a flexible approach to our Board. We have had three Directors take a break for maternity leave and are agile to enable them to continue at their own pace and involvement if they'd like to, while on leave. As a voluntary organisation, we recognise the work/life balance of our Directors and aim to host meetings and events around when the majority are avialable.
That 50/50 isn't good enough. It's not a case of achieving a quote - it's about recognising that the majority of those working within tourism and hospitality (66%) are women; and not enough is being done to support them into positions of leadership (only 6% back in 2017).
That no is a full sentence. It's ok to say no to things without providing volumes of rationale. I've seen male colleagues just say 'no' and women should feel more empowered and able to do the same.
Be ambitious. Be vocal. Support each other. Our industry and community is hugely passionate - it's the reason we work within the industry. Collaboration is key and don't think you need to be over 50 and a CEO to attain a position of leadership. I was in my 30s and a Marketing Manager when I came up with the idea, and launched WIT!
Susan is the Founder and Chair of Women In Tourism, a not-for-profit based in Scotland who support women across the industry. In her day job she is the Head of Marketing at Pike + Bambridge, a leading premium car leasing business with offices in Edinburgh, London and Aberdeen. Susan has previously held senior roles within Criton, Edinburgh's Festivals, Underbelly Ltd and VisitScotland. In her spare time she is undertaking the Executive MBA at Edinburgh University and is due to graduate in June 2023.
