The Black Travel Movement: A Catalyst for Social Change

Abstract

In response to the underrepresentation of Black people in the travel sphere, Black travelers have created their presence in the market – authentically representing and providing opportunities for Black travelers. This group of Black travelers has taken on the collective name of the Black Travel Movement (BTM). Informed by social movement and critical race theory, nine interviews were conducted to better understand what influences BTM leaders in their quest for social change. Three emergent themes resulted: Catalysts Lead to Self-Efficacy, Awareness Leads to Consciousness Raising, and Community Activation Leads to Resource Mobilization. As evident from our interviews with BTM leaders, discrimination, bias, racism, and inequities are ubiquitous and continue to create inhospitable and toxic touristic experiences and landscapes for Black and people of color. However, results reveal a cyclical model that highlights hope through activism and community mobilization.

Keywords

Black travel movement social movement theory critical race theory social change African American travel

Introduction

Black/African American¹ people have been afflicted by racism, segregation, and discrimination for centuries (Foster 1999; Delgado and Stefancic 2017). Unfortunately, the travel and tourism industry has not escaped these horrific and marginalizing inequalities (Chio et al. 2020). Traditionally homogenous and White-washed, travel and tourism has completely missed the mark in creating authentic representations of marginalized groups, including Black people (Buzinde, Santos, and Smith 2006; Chio et al. 2020; Burton and Klemm 2011). Historically, the industry has depicted leisure travel with all White faces (Burton and Klemm 2011; Davis 2018; Martin 2004; Brown and Jones 2013; Anievas, Manchanda, and Shilliam 2014), the results of which have been far-reaching and deeply damaging (Dillette, Benjamin, and Carpenter 2018). Attempts at righting these wrongs, for example, separate advertisements highlighting Black faces, perpetuated a “separate but equal” stance contributing to the normative power of Whiteness (Alderman 2013). These attempts only perpetuated the issue, rather than authentically representing and including Black people in the travel industry. In fact, a recent study on marketing and racism revealed that not much has changed over a significant period of time (Davis 2018).

In response to the ongoing underrepresentation of Black people in the travel sphere, Black travel leaders have taken the industry by storm. They are creating their own presence in the market using the advent of digital social media to authentically represent their experiences and to provide opportunities for Black travelers around the world. This semiorganized group of Black travel leaders and organizations have the collective name of the Black Travel Movement (BTM). Although many major media outlets, such as CNN, the New York Times, MSNBC, Travel and Leisure, and the Huffington Post have taken notice of this movement as the “new” BTM, it is not unprecedented, but steeped in historical traditions (Foster 1999). Despite the adversity Black people have faced, they have unabashedly participated in the travel industry as consumers and entrepreneurs since the beginning of the twentieth century (Foster 1999) and developed a historical tradition of engaging in movement as a mechanism for freedom (Gill 2019). While the BTM is novel in many ways, it is not new but rooted in the footsteps of those enslaved Black Africans who are the descendants of today’s modern African Americans. This new BTM was able to gain traction largely because of digital social media providing a space for counternarrative stories from traditionally marginalized populations (Gill 2019; Dillette, Benjamin, and Carpenter 2018). The BTM is a current day manifestation of this historic momentum in the Black community.

Although the movement of Black people can be traced back over centuries, research on the phenomenon is scarce, and just beginning to make a mark in tourism literature (Alderman 2013; Benjamin et al. 2016; Lee and Scott 2017; Philipp 1994; Dillette, Benjamin, and Carpenter 2018; Holland 2002; Dillette 2020; Alderman, Williams, and Bottone 2019; P. L. Carter 2008; Duffy et al. 2019). In particular, only one study investigated tour operators in Black travel by exploring the stories of Black travel agents (P. L. Carter 2008). Other studies explored Black travel through a historical lens (Alderman, Williams, and Bottone 2019), heritage sites dedicated to slavery (Benjamin et al. 2016), critical discourse of traveling while Black in the American south (Duffy et al. 2019), and Black travel experiences shared on social media (Dillette, Benjamin, and Carpenter 2018). The scarcity of research spread across varying fields reveals a significant gap in the literature around the intersections between tourism, racism, and social movements. Additionally, recent movements calling out continued systematic racism (Worland 2020) sparked a global outrage across industries, tourism being no exception (PCMA 2020; Ferguson 2020; Spinks 2020; Mzezewa and Rychter 2020). Recognizing this dearth in the literature, coupled with the current industry climate, exploring the knowledge gap in understanding issues of BTM is warranted. More specifically, there is a gap in understanding how leaders developed BTM and gained momentum as a social movement.

Scholars argue for tourism research to commit to work that critically assesses the power of tourism to impact social and equitable change (Pritchard, Morgan, and Ateljevic 2011). This study explores the ways BTM leaders, particularly in the era of social and digital media, have used travel to reclaim their dignity and freedom and create social change toward racial equity in travel and tourism. Informed by critical race theory (CRT) and social movement theory (SMT), this study extends the work of P. L. Carter (2008) interviewing leaders of the new BTM guided by the major research question, What influences Black travel movement leaders in their quest toward social change in the travel industry?

Literature Review

The Evolution of Black Travel

Although Black travel is not a new phenomenon, only a small cluster of scholars have researched this topic. In the 1970s Washburne speculated that Black Americans took part in leisure activities significantly less because of their socioeconomic status (Washburne 1978). However, other scholars disagreed and argued that these lower levels can be explained by the anxiety and fear of racial discrimination Black Americans feel while traveling and participating in leisure (Floyd 1998; Holland 2002). Years later, P. L. Carter (2008) found that Black people gravitated toward traveling in larger groups, a behavior linked to the fear of racism and discrimination while traveling. More recent studies found that travel attitudes, behaviors, and experiences are still linked to issues of marginality, racism, and discrimination (Dillette, Benjamin, and Carpenter 2018; Lee and Scott 2017; Tucker and Deale 2018). Despite these negative findings, Black travelers experience transformation through travel (Dillette, Benjamin, and Carpenter 2018) and are contributing significantly to the economic growth of travel and tourism (MMGY Global 2020). Although improvements were made, it is imperative to explore the evolution of Black travel and how it has been shaped by the past.

Black travel behaviors such as traveling in familiar groups, avoiding unfamiliar places and unplanned situations, and traveling alone can be traced back to collective memories from slavery (Johnson 1998). After the abolition of slavery in 1865, it was not a clear road to freedom and equality. Many formerly enslaved people became sharecroppers and continued to experience racism and discrimination until 1964 when Jim Crow segregation was outlawed. During this time, Black people also faced specific segregation while traveling because of the Supreme Court decision of 1896, which established segregation in public accommodations. Despite the difficulty many Black people faced in the transition from enslavement to freedom, some found avenues where they could experience leisure and travel in peace. Beginning in the late 1800s, small affluent groups of Black people began to travel and participate in leisure along the railroads in the United States, some even making it to Europe and Africa (Foster 1999).

Among those who were able to travel abroad, many described feeling a sense of liberation from the racism and discrimination they so often felt at home in the United States (Foster 1999). Laws of segregation made the early twentieth-century invention of the automobile an appreciated alternative to traveling on the railroad. There was hope that this new form of transportation would bring a sense of freedom and autonomy while traveling the open road. This reality only brought on more distressing experiences—worries about stopping at the wrong rest stop, diner, or motel, or simply driving through the wrong sundown town² (Alderman, Williams, and Bottone 2019). In response to these issues, The Negro Motorist Green Book, a handbook to help Black people safely navigate the road, was published in 1936 (Green 1947). This history is important to the evolution of Black travel because it played a significant role in indoctrinating attitudes of racism in American society, ultimately making it very challenging for Black people to experience leisure through travel and recreation (Foster 1999).

Though many years removed from laws of segregation, successful integration is still a far cry from the current reality in the United States. Hundreds of years of slavery followed by lawful racial inequities have left a stain in society. Recent studies continue to show that these residuals are still resulting in experiences of racism and discrimination for Black travelers (Dillette, Benjamin, and Carpenter 2018). In response to these ongoing issues, Black travelers developed their own communities “for us, by us”—creating a safe space for travelers of color around the world, now known collectively as the “Black Travel Movement.” Though there is no narrow definition of the BTM, it can be described as a grouping of organizations with the goal of connecting Black and people of color to travel and leisure experiences outside their normal home environment (Dillette, Benjamin, and Carpenter 2018). With the first company officially founded in 2011 by Evita Robinson (Nomadness 2020), the movement has now grown to include organizations that provide opportunities for group or solo travel (BTM organizations) as well as individual Black travelers who connect communities of color through chronicling and sharing their travel adventures via social media (BTM influencers). In this study, we specifically focused on the founders of BTM organizations because of their role in leading the development of this movement (Robinson 2017). At the time of this study, there were 20 established companies in the movement that collectively boasted online communities of more than 3 million people across the social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Each organization has a slightly different focus, including a range of offerings such as adventure, outdoor, cultural, heritage, luxury, wellness, and eco travel as well as two companies offering accommodations through home-sharing platforms. Each organization focuses their offerings toward different demographics by gender, sexual orientation, age range, and traveler status (solo/group). This BTM used the advent of digital social media as a way to express their desire for freedom through travel (Gill 2019).

Black Travel as a Social Movement in the Age of Digital Media

BTM is the first of its kind to emerge within the age of digital media, giving Black entrepreneurs the necessary tools and empowerment to create authentic counternarratives about Black travel experiences. The impact of unconstrained access to the Internet and social media for traditionally marginalized groups significantly assisted with the development of BTM as a social movement (Gill 2019). For example, in addition to highlighting the economic case for BTM, a 2019 CNN article titled “How the Black Travel Movement Is Gaining Momentum” stresses the unique challenges faced by Black entrepreneurs in the movement; challenging stereotypes and limiting beliefs, addressing severe underrepresentation of travelers of color in the tourism industry, and creating a safe community of travelers that “look like us.” Therefore, organizations within the BTM can be categorized as entrepreneurial businesses as well as social entrepreneurship within a larger social movement that is empowering and providing opportunities for Black people to travel the globe. Social entrepreneurship is identified by the drive to “create social value, rather than personal and shareholder wealth [through] activities characterized by innovation or the creation of something new rather than simply the replication of existing enterprises or practices” (Austin, Stevenson, and Wei-Skillern 2006, p. 371). Although entrepreneurship has long been a foundation in the hospitality and tourism industry, research on the topic is still in the early stages (Li 2008; Peters and Kallmuenzer 2018), especially as it relates to theoretical development (Fu et al. 2019) and marginalized social entrepreneurship (Hornsby 2019).

Digital social media has allowed marginalized groups access to spaces that otherwise were not easily accessible without significant resources in the traditional media space (Carty 2018; Sandoval-Almazan and Gil-Garcia 2014). With the advent of the Internet and later digital social media, the traditional power dynamics of communication shifted to include more counternarrative viewpoints leading to modern social movements (Carty 2018). Modern social movements are defined as “an organized effort by a significant number of people to change (or resist change in) some major aspects of society” (Scott and Marshall 2009, p. 489). Many modern social movements have gained steam from people with limited power and resources, who are often systematically excluded and marginalized (Carty 2018; Goodwin, Jasper, and Polletta 2009). For instance, the Civil Rights Movement in the United States and the more recent movements that have gained momentum through social media; women’s empowerment, #MeToo and #TimesUp campaigns, the #BlackLivesMatter movement in protest of police brutality and the #AntiTourism movement that originated in Europe. Arguably, these more recent social movements, would not have gained near the amount of momentum without the advent of digital social media. New media technologies have allowed users to shift from their traditional role as consumers of media to creators and distributors of their own messages (Carty 2018).

This shift has had powerful implications for modern social movements impacting significant societal and political change. The BTM does fall within the definition of social movements as a continued collective articulation of resistance to elite opponents (Tarrow 1998) and, more specifically, modern social movements with the goal of changing some aspect of society (Scott and Marshall 2009). The BTM also has the added layer of being an umbrella for social entrepreneurs seeking to run successful businesses while affecting change in the travel sphere. This opening of the media floodgates has allowed BTM to flourish in a myriad of ways including bypassing traditional media sources, the ability to communicate and digitally spread shared experiences and empowering non-traditional people to become leaders of social change (Carty 2018). Crucial to any social movement is the approach for activating change, in this case, the strategy is intimately linked to digital social media.

Theoretical Lens

Critical Race Theory and Social Movement Theory

Critical race theory (CRT) offers a platform to examine the historical issues of power, domination and oppression that have afflicted marginalized populations in tourism. CRT is grounded in the premise that racism is pervasive and permanent and is embedded in the foundations of systems and society (Delgado and Stefancic 2017; Taylor, Gillborn, and Ladson-Billings 2009; Bell 1992). CRT provides a lens for exploring the connections between race, racism and power and serves as a foundation for activism (Bell 1995). CRT also argues that changes in dominant society result from a compelling reason to change and seeks to challenge covert forms of racism (Delgado and Stefancic 2017). By exposing racism in society through counternarrative storytelling, CRT is an oppositional narrative practice with the goal of uncovering and exposing inconvenient truths (Dillette, Benjamin, and Carpenter 2018; Price 2010). Sparingly used in tourism studies, CRT reveals the counternarrative stories of Black travelers through Twitter (Dillette, Benjamin, and Carpenter 2018) and within the geography of tourism to critically analyze how race plays a role within tourism (Alderman 2010). However, CRT has not been used as a lens to understand social movements from a leadership perspective within travel and tourism.

Although the goal of CRT is to highlight how endemic racism shapes our world, a critique of this theory is that there is not much room to influence equitable social change. Therefore, we used CRT as an overarching lens to understand the systemic issues of race and power that motivated BTM leaders in collaboration with social movement theory (SMT) as a potential “solution” to the critique of CRT. SMT provides an avenue to explore the inner workings of the modern BTM along with how leaders enacted societal change through travel (McGehee, Kline, and Knollenberg 2014). Generally, social movements take place outside of dominant society and seek to enact change within an inequitable social issue, normally impacting marginalized groups (Goodwin and Jasper 2014).

SMT examines how social change occurs at both the individual and organizational level (Goodwin and Jasper 2014). At the individual level, self-efficacy and consciousness raising are essential. Self-efficacy is defined as “ones sense of an ability to overcome obstacles in life” (McGehee, Kline, and Knollenberg 2014, p. 142). In order to lead a social movement, a person must first have the ability to recognize and overcome obstacles themselves to commit to and impact change among others (Kelly and Breinlinger 1996; Drury and Reicher 2005). For instance, a person may have strong attitudes about racism, but without self-efficacy, it is unlikely they will take action to solve the issue of racism (Kelly and Breinlinger 1996). Therefore, in order to lead a social movement, one must possess the self-efficacy to have the belief that social movements can enact social change.

Consciousness raising refers to an individual’s identification with and awareness of the “battlegrounds” of social conflict, injustices and inequity (Mueller 1992). Consciousness raising occurs as a result of experiences through collective action, whereby an individual becomes aware that she or he is a part of a larger movement, leading to a sense of commitment and, a sense that successful social change it possible (Klandermans 1992). Both Mueller and Klandermans posit that “battlegrounds” refer to a specific social conflict that triggers awareness to an injustice or equality that subsequently catalyzes individuals to commit to a social movement. It occurs within collective groups where individuals build relationships with others who have similar experiences to their own. The full experience of consciousness raising is a complex and powerful individual experience that often occurs within a group context (Gordon 2002).

At the organizational level, resource mobilization is central to social movements. Resource mobilization is the examination of “how and through what networks social movement organizations obtain economic, political and human resources” (McGehee, Kline, and Knollenberg 2014, p. 142). This type of network mobilization is important because social movements are frequently started by marginalized groups trying to gain a foothold of power and resources that have been withheld. Resource mobilization can occur through the relationships created among people within specific social organizations (Klandermans 1992) or among networks that may not be tied to a specific organization (Bodin and Crona 2009; Tindall, Cormier, and Diani 2012).

Utilized in the tourism context, SMT includes volunteer tourism (McGehee 2002, 2012; McGehee and Santos 2005), tourism overdevelopment (Kousis 2000), and sustainable tourism development (McGehee, Kline, and Knollenberg 2014), but there is still room for growth in its application to understanding organizations and leadership that affect societal change. McGehee’s (2002) work explored how volunteer tourism experiences impacted volunteers’ propensity to participate in social movements upon their return home. Kousis (2000) explored the sociology of tourism and environment highlighting the energy and effort of tourism protestors as a social movement. In 2014, McGehee, Kline, and Knollenberg investigated the ability of a nonprofit to facilitate and mobilize activities to impact social change from a regional development standpoint. As McGehee and Santos (2005) posited, SMT is working on finding potential solutions around power, privilege, and oppression. Through the application of counterstorytelling, this study embodies an effort to combine CRT and SMT as foundations to provoke compassion and understanding as a roadmap to shift opinions steeped in endemic and systemic racism (Delgado and Stefancic 2017). This study sheds light on the role of BTM leaders in creating a societal shift toward equity in the travel and tourism industry. The justification for including both theoretical perspectives stems from CRT providing a basis for critiquing the racial tension while SMT provides a framework for understanding how social change mobilizes within traditionally marginalized populations.

Methodology

Approach and Reflexivity

The methodology is informed through a critical-interpretivist lens (Goodson and Phillimore 2004) and uses an inductive thematic approach to data analysis (Saldaña 2015). As qualitative researchers, we value positionality and reflexivity and find it important to understand and be forthcoming about our “place” and potential biases we may bring to the culture being studied (Creswell and Creswell 2017). I (the first author) identify as a Black, multicultural woman and am connected to the BTM as a participant in one of the organizations included in this study. Given my connection to the community, I identify with some of the experiences shared by participants. I (the second author) identify as a White woman and was a minority in the room as all the participants are Black. We incorporated our different lenses within the design and analysis by continuing to have open dialogue around race, privilege, and power. For instance, throughout crafting our interview questions, conducting interviews with participants, and data analysis, we question and challenge our biases and assumptions through journaling, phone conversations, and e-mail correspondence. This allowed us the space and time to truly be reflexive and question the beliefs and assumptions we each held.

Making sure we were transparent with ourselves and the participants, we shared our personal and professional backgrounds including our previous work around social and racial justice in tourism. In doing so, we built rapport with the participants. However, we do not know if participants held back any feelings or thoughts around their lived experiences as BTM leaders due to being interviewed by a person of a different racial background and consider this as a potential limitation of this study. To address this, a significant focus on member checking and other trustworthiness measures were used (Creswell and Creswell 2017).

Data collection and analysis

Participants for this study were selected through a purposive sample based on their role as leaders in the BTM and willingness to share their personal stories with the researchers (Saldaña 2015). Leaders were identified based on their status as founders of the organizations at the forefront of the BTM, and their level of influence in the larger BTM community. Our initial list included 17 companies that were identified through an overview of industry publications, podcasts, and blog postings across digital travel and tourism media. Additional organizations were added to the list as we conducted interviews using the snowball sampling technique (Saldaña 2015). Overall, we contacted all 20 companies currently in the movement—and were able to secure interviews with nine leaders. Each leader was the owner and founder of their company and had been in business between four and nine years (Table 1). Five leaders identified as women and four as men. Eight companies offered domestic and international group trips as their foundational service, while the ninth company was a home-sharing service. Other products and services offered included branded merchandise, conferences and events, keynote speaking, private tours, group camping trips, local gatherings, and online travel communities. All nine leaders identified as Black and were between the ages of 30 and 50 years.

Table 1.

Demographic Profile of Participants.

Leaders^a	Gender Identity	Title	Company Type	Target Market	Years in Business	Social Media Following^b
Evelyn	Female	Founder/Owner	Travel lifestyle brand	Millennial	9	161,393
Kayden	Male	Founder/Owner	Adventure travel company	Adventure	9	36,759
Camila	Female	Founder/Owner	Luxury travel company	Luxury	7	86,280
Stella	Female	Founder/Owner	Adventure travel company	Adventure	6	16,767
Sofia	Female	Founder/Owner	Travel club	Women	6	68,889
Dawn	Female	Founder/Owner	Female travel company	Women	5	147,584
Larry	Male	Founder/Owner	Travel company	Mega group trips	7	70,094
Kwesi	Female	Founder/Owner	Travel lifestyle brand	Africa as a destination	5	27,999
Sean	Male	Founder/Owner	Home sharing company	Lodging	4	89,904

Pseudonyms were used for the purposes of anonymity.

Social media following included recorded numbers from Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter on August 7, 2020.

Interviews were conducted using an in-depth, semistructured format over Skype video conferencing and ranged from 60 to 90 minutes. The semistructured interview protocol was designed for informants to share their journeys to becoming BTM leaders, therefore, some stories shared were from their perspective as leaders in addition to their perspective as travelers. Following a semistructured guide ensured consistency across the data, while also allowing room to gain rich insights from each individual participant (Patton 2002). All interviews were audio recorded, transcribed for maximum transparency in data analysis, and returned to each participant for member checking. Across interviews, many themes, stories, and details were repeated across participants, suggesting that “theoretical sufficiency” was reached. Reaching theoretical sufficiency suggests that the categories are well described by and fitting with the data presented—acknowledging the fact that we can never know everything and that there is never one complete truth (Dey 1999).

Data from the interviews were reported using pseudonyms for the participants and travel groups to maintain confidentiality. After transcription, we analyzed data from the interviews using NVivo 11—a qualitative text mining software. Each interview was analyzed separately to establish a basis for credibility and dependability (L. S. Nowell et al. 2017). Based on this analysis, we developed an initial list of codes based on raw quotes within the interview data (Braun and Clarke 2012). After the completion of this initial list, we discussed each individual code and its meaning within the data. Through this iterative process, some codes were merged because of duplicity of meaning. We discussed the relationship between codes and how they fit together to form overarching themes. This process resulted in a codebook linking themes, codes and quotes together and helped to begin the establishment of confirmability (L. S. Nowell et al. 2017). Each overarching theme was given an operationalized definition to ensure trustworthiness between the codebook and the raw data. This process was iterative and included a search for confirming and disconfirming evidence. Prior to developing the final synoptic chart linking codes and themes, we reached out to each participant for their feedback on how their quotes were interpreted as a form of member checking (B. Nowell and Albrecht 2018). One participant amended one quote to better represent her feelings on the topic. Finally, findings were linked back to the theoretical lenses and previous literature represented in a final thematic map and summary of the findings (Braun and Clarke 2012). Major themes are represented as (1) Catalysts that led to Self-Efficacy, (2) Awareness that led to Consciousness Raising, and (3) Community Activation that led to Resource Mobilization. Together, these three major themes allowed BTM leaders to develop Black travel into a movement and impact real social change.

Findings and Discussion

Findings reveal a cyclical model illustrating how social change occurs within the BTM at the individual level as well as the organizational level (Figure 1). The model highlights major themes that influence BTM leaders in their quest toward social change in the travel industry. The model is based on the underlying premise that self-efficacy is necessary at an individual level before a person can lead a social movement (Kelly and Breinlinger 1996). Self-efficacy was represented through experiences of structural inequality, racism, discrimination, the political climate and education. These experiences of self-efficacy led participants into BTM leadership, which in turn, led to an individual awakening of consciousness raising revealed through collective trauma, inequality in Black communities, lack of representation, counternarratives through social media, and storytelling.

Figure 1.

The Black Travel Movement social movement theory model.

Facilitated by BTM leadership, both self-efficacy and consciousness raising proved to be cyclically related—as self-efficacy was realized, participants committed to becoming BTM leaders, BTM leadership then allowed for a deep level of consciousness raising, which in turn supported more self-efficacy. At the organizational level, BTM leaders were able to mobilize resources through networks of community activation including an activist incubator, business networks, economies of scale, and (lack of) funding. Both self-efficacy and consciousness raising allowed BTM leaders to mobilize at the organizational level, leading to wider participation in BTM as a social movement.

Catalysts Lead to Self-Efficacy

Findings reveal that self-efficacy occurred at the individual level for all participants as a catalyst for them to step into roles as leaders of the BTM. In order to explore self-efficacy, we asked participants to share their journeys to becoming BTM leaders. Leaders shared stories of barriers including poverty, structural racism and discrimination, and lack of accessibility and representation, as well as positive experiences of education and empowerment. In line with the tenets of CRT, many participants shared their understanding of structural racism and how they have used this as a compelling reason to commit to social change (Bell 1992; Delgado and Stefancic 2017). As an example of self-efficacy, Kwesi shared his understanding of the deep-rooted structural inequalities in the United States and how he learned that although hurdles do exist, they have been overcome before, and will be overcome again:

Specifically, for Black Americans . . . we’re coming out of a very recent period where literally traveling wasn’t for you. [However], we’ve always been world travelers, so, as much as I love it, this whole Black Travel Movement, it’s not new. Our parents and Grandparents used the Green Book. Now, we are facing these hurdles (redlining and all that other stuff) . . . the White power structure of the US did not want Black people to move around, they did not want Black people to connect, to build, especially with other Black people, because that results in power, that results in change.

Building on this sentiment, Dawn shared how her experiences with continued discrimination while flying have led her to adopt an “I don’t care” attitude and allowed her to feel empowered to show up in spaces where she is traditionally out of place:

When I fly, sometimes I have the opportunity to fly first class and I’m questioned multiple times. For example, they will say, “Can we have all our first-class people check in?” So, I’m in the line, and they’ll hop back on the intercom, but looking directly at me and say, “We only want first class. If you’re not first class, you will be turned away.” But I show up at any space like I’m supposed to be there. Then when I approach, they go, “Are you first class?” Without even looking at the ticket. And I go, “Of course I’m first class, here’s my ticket.” And they study my ticket . . . and then it’s like, ‘Okay, have a great day.’ It doesn’t happen every flight, but I have experienced it enough. These types of experiences remind me of how important it is to continue showing up, and now, bringing more people who look like me.

Another important story was shared by Sean, who was involved in a discrimination case with the well-known home sharing platform, Airbnb. While staying at a rental property, Sean had the police called on him and his (Black male) friends by a neighbor who reported that a “robbery was happening.” This led to public outrage, and the proliferation of the hashtag #AirBnBWhileBlack, where other Black travelers shared their experiences with discrimination using the social media platform Twitter. In fact, researchers took on these allegations and proved that Airbnb does in fact have an issue with discrimination unpacking how guests with “African American–sounding names” are 16% less likely to be accommodated relative to guests with “White-sounding” names (Cheng and Foley 2018; Cui, Li, and Zhang 2017). Many of these sharing platforms, like AirBnB, require users to provide their demographics in order to build “trust” in the community. However, this also increases discriminatory behavior based on race, gender, and religion. Sean shared how this situation led to the idea and consequent launch of his organization in the BTM, confirming the argument by previous research that links attitudes toward social issues with social movement participation (Drury and Reicher 2005).

When that situation happened with Airbnb, they were very passive about coming up with a solution. We were sitting around in a lounge and I thought, “Well we can ask others to solve this issue or we can just provide a solution ourselves.” We realized that though this is stuff you shouldn’t have to think about anymore, we still have a problem with discrimination. So, not only do I want to provide a solution to discrimination in home sharing, but I see us growing into other spaces as well. I just couldn’t accept that there is an entire community where people feel like they can’t travel because they are scared.

All the leaders shared how the current divisive climate in the United States led them to encourage others to use their status as Americans to gain access to mobility, and henceforth freedom (Gill 2019). For example, Kwesi shared more specifically how recent acts of police brutality pushed him to action:

As I have traveled, people will ask me, “Did they really shoot that 15-year-old kid and kill him? Did they really tackle a 15-year-old girl at a pool party? Is that staged or is that real?” And yeah, it’s tough to say, but this stuff is real. And that is why we need passports—because (a) I need to be ready to go if something happens, or (b) even before something happens, I need to be looking at other options. Because for the longest time, America’s been the only option for people that were born here. They taught us to feel like everywhere else is dangerous or not as good. But really, the most dangerous place for us [Black people] is probably here [America]. I guess, the very small silver lining of all of this is that it’s forcing people to wake up and be ready.

Whereas Larry felt that as an African American, he was considering the idea of moving out of the country because of systemic racism and police brutality:

I think if you are African American and you turn on the TV, it’s pretty routine that you will hear about something that just makes you feel uncomfortable as an African American. You hear about police shootings, you hear about people just having the police called on them seemingly for existing. And me personally, I’m in a place, in a mindset where I feel like maybe I don’t need to be in America, or maybe I need to open up to the idea of living somewhere else . . . that maybe you don’t need to live in America, or maybe we should at least look at other places that might be overall welcoming and we don’t have to worry about having the police called on us just for barbecuing, which a lot of us do like to barbecue. So I think that’s part of the reason why.

Unfortunately, the experience Kwesi and Larry shared is eerily similar to those of the past where African Americans sought to flee or participate in leisure lifestyles in search of a release from racism at home. As Gill (2019) posited, for Black Americans, the act of travel is a mechanism for seeking freedom. On a more positive note, leaders also shared how their education allowed them to experience the power of travel as transformation (Dillette, Benjamin, and Carpenter 2018). Dawn shared a story about her elementary school teacher who significantly influenced her to commit to travel as a lifestyle, sharing that “when I decided to start my company, I kept telling myself I’m looking for that little girl that’s not inspired. She may be an adult now, but she’s stuck, or broken. I’m looking for her, I want to save her life through travel.”

Similar to Dawn, Sofia also shared her own personal experiences that led her to focus on empowering women to travel for healing and transformation:

Through my own travels, I discovered that there’s healing power in travel. While we’re traveling, we’re exploring the pores of who we are, and are open to receive new culture, we’re also opening ourselves up to healing. So that’s what the mission is for my company—to empower women to find healing through travel.

Sofia and Dawn’s experiences traveling made a lasting impact and led them to developing a commitment to travel as a vehicle for transforming the Black community. The travel experience can contribute to personal benefits, to society, and to the planet—which, according to Falk et al. (2012), “long outlive the temporal boundaries of the experience itself” (p. 922). As such, Pritchard, Morgan, and Ateljevic (2011) assert that the current use of travel for knowledge production is in need of change suggesting that travel and tourism offer time for reflection of one’s values and one’s place in the world—arguing for travel and tourism designed to be transformative and give space for social action.

Awareness Leads to Consciousness Raising

Consciousness raising is unique in that it often occurs as a result of interactions within a group but is also a significantly personal experience (Gordon 2002). For BTM leaders, consciousness raising occurred at the individual level as a result of shared personal experiences related to collective trauma, inequality in Black communities, lack of representation for travelers of color, and understanding social media as a tool for counternarrative storytelling. Collective trauma was discussed through the lens of understanding slavery as a collective memory passed down over generations (Johnson 1998). For example, Dawn shared how these collective memories are still impacting travel today, but, with awareness, has led her to empower others to release themselves from this trauma:

This is a result of slavery that has trickled down. Think about it—when our ancestors were enslaved people, we were prevented to learn . . . [and] you have to understand that the result of that is catastrophic. It’s still present today. Many of our parents didn’t travel, couldn’t travel. Although now we have the ability to travel and have access to knowledge, generational limits of beliefs still linger. You have to go back and correct all of what went wrong, and this is what the movement is doing for Black Travel. You have to get through all of that muck. And it’s hard, really hard. It’s gonna take generations.

In line with CRT, another BTM leader shared how they became aware that Black communities are still lacking a significant support structure in the travel sphere due to structural inequalities and discrimination embedded in dominant society (Delgado and Stefancic 2017). More specifically, Sean shared how he realized how important his company was going to be as a central space to support not only Black travel but Black businesses and communities. He reflected on how and why his company was nicknamed The Green Book–Part Two:

In a lot of ways my company is The Green Book–Part Two. When we started, that really wasn’t the plan. However, after we started gaining traction, a lot of people came to us saying, “Hey, you guys are really like a new version of The Green Book.” And then, the light immediately went off in my head. Although it’s a shame that something like our company is necessary right now, it’s also a beautiful thing because it provides us an opportunity to serve our community. We want this [business] to be that central, global, Black community where not only travelers, but Black business owners, service providers, inventors, creatives, and artists can have a home base where they feel safe and comfortable connecting and building genuine relationships.

Unfortunately, this reveals what recent research has continued to highlight, that Black travelers are fearful and searching for safe spaces of community and support (Dillette, Benjamin, and Carpenter 2018; Lee and Scott 2017; Tucker and Deale 2018; P. L. Carter 2008). Furthermore, Stella shared that her focus is to bring representation and awareness of travel to young [Black] girls, with the hope that, over time, this exposure will change the narrative in the long term.

One thing that I’m doing now is I’m trying to work in a key part of my business to work with young girls. Because I feel like if you get them young and start to get them a passport and open their minds up to travel and the advantages that it can bring to their life, the benefits will be endless.

Finally, all leaders shared the significant impact that social media has had on their ability to raise awareness about BTM and issues facing Black travelers. Evelyn explained how the catalyst to her committing to BTM was her growing awareness of the stark lack of representation in the media, but that her tool to counterbalance this has been social media:

Mainstream media is still doing a poor job representing travelers of color. It’s just like, they say they want a part of this, but nothing in your marketing is indicating that. Nothing. There’s a couple of levels with it, but it starts with lack of representation and us needing to tell our own stories, us owning our own narratives, and social media became a level playing field of us to be able to do that. We are owning our own narratives, and we’re building platforms that are getting the reach where people have no choice but to see that this isn’t going anywhere and that it’s only growing.

As Malcolm X argued, “the media is the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent . . . they control the minds of the masses” (Crane 2011). This quote reminds us that we are currently living through a moment in history where media is not entirely controlled by the dominant powers in society. As Evelyn put it, BTM leaders have found a way to level the playing field through using digital social media. Not only are they leveling the media playing field but also raising awareness of issues specific to Black travelers. Furthermore, social media provided the springboard for BTM leaders to mobilize people, first, as an online community, and later as in-person networks and resources that enabled them to travel the globe.

Community Activation Leads to Resource Mobilization

Resource mobilization is central to the development and sustainability of social movement organizations in that it examines exactly how social movements obtain resources. At the organizational level, BTM leaders mobilized human resources through networks of Black community activists and businesses and economic resources using economies of scale. Unfortunately, leaders also faced challenges mobilizing the economic resources of funding. Numerous BTM leaders spoke about how much the movement has allowed them to mobilize groups of activists in response to the current political climate in the United States. As an example, Evelyn reflected on how the executive ordered travel ban to “Protect the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States” by US President Donald Trump affected travelers of color and subsequently led to a discussion among the group about how these types of policies may affect Black people, specifically Black Americans:

Trump has definitely made things more difficult. I had members who were affected by the abrupt Muslim ban when everybody was landing and didn’t know that this law was passed while they were in the air and were stranded at airports. Other ways Trump has made it way more difficult . . . he’s done two things. He’s made it way more difficult to travel as a person of color, especially to the U.S. However, he’s also spiked a whole bunch of interest in people wanting to look at living outside of the United States. We’re having more in-depth conversations about what it would be like to be an expat. I also have activists that are a part of the group, and one of our members was the head of logistics for the Women’s March on Washington. We’re not only the home to Black travelers, but we’re the home to influencers and activists. . . . Period. . . . We have prominent figures within the walls of this group who speak up and have their own followings and are at the rallies, and part of the justice leagues.

This discussion was apparent in some way or another for all the leaders. Some even spoke of Black Americans mobilizing to invest in land and real estate in other countries, and looking into how to gain citizenship somewhere else “in case anything happens.” This issue sheds light on an important conversation about how Black travelers feel in their own country of origin, and how the structural inequalities and racism that has pervaded the United States for centuries still prevails.

It begs to question, what is the duty of the larger travel industry when it comes to political executive orders like the “Trump travel ban”? In addition to the mobilization of activists, some BTM leaders also spoke about their mission to mobilize Black business owners as a thriving community of growth. Both Kwesi and Kayden spoke of ways in which they help to mobilize and support Black business through their BTM organizations. First, Kayden explained his goal of connecting Black businesses with the goal of creating community relationships and wealth:

African American businesses are able to be vendors at my events for free. I don’t charge them to be a vendor at the event because I really want their business to grow and I want them to meet other people. The Black Travel Movement is more than just Black people traveling and taking cool pictures for Instagram. You’re really building a stronger network of family, friends, and people that can actually go into business together and build relationships.

Kwesi also shared how, in a different way, he strived to support and mobilize Black businesses, not only through promoting Black travel but also by supporting Black businesses on the ground:

One of the things that we focus on specifically is that we are aiming at Black restaurants, Black guides, Black history, and Black culture when we travel. When we get there, our goal is to put our dollars in Black pockets. Sometimes, this is hard to do, even in Africa. For example, in South Africa, finding a Black safari guide was extremely hard to do in Kruger National Park. Something you might assume there is a plethora of, because it’s Africa, but, unfortunately, this is not the case.

Other leaders shared similar ways they strive to support and create community through their organizations. For example, Evelyn supported the first female Black travel host on the popular network Travel Channel through her own personal networks and BTM organization. From an economic standpoint, BTM leaders were able to mobilize resources to provide exclusive experiences to their members. For example, Camila shared how her organization strove to provide a level of luxury that has traditionally been inaccessible:

Yachting is a really great example where there’s lots of reasons why we [Black travelers] are not exposed to certain things. For instance, it’s not that renting a boat for a week is expensive, it’s that we don’t have access, because our parents don’t own boats. When we go sailing, you’ll typically see Caucasian families where the father has learned to sail from his father. They own their own boats and it is generational. They can afford to, and we could afford to take a yachting trip, but we don’t know how to drive it. We don’t know how to sail a boat. It’s not even something that would even come up in conversation.

Furthermore, Camila explained how she was able to use economies of scale to gain access to experiences like a private gourmet lunch on the Great Wall of China:

We went to the Great Wall of China, and I had organized for a section of the wall to be shut down to have a private gourmet lunch with champagne on the wall. Those are just types of things that, as a Black person, you just usually don’t have opportunities to participate in these types of things. A, because it usually too expensive with any other company, or you don’t really know anybody doing it. I am really trying to bridge that gap and give people opportunities to travel to places they would not normally go.

Despite the ways BTM leaders have managed to mobilize resources, many also shared their concern for mobilizing capital in order to support business growth and continued development. As an example, Sean shared his personal experience with trying to secure funding and the roadblocks that he continually faces:

Being a Black start-up, people underestimate you in a lot of ways. We’ve had to go through different development teams, guys who were just trying to hustle us and take advantage of us. So, the main roadblock is just funds, and not having investors willing to take a chance on you.

This challenge highlights a significant concern for BTM leaders as they continue to strive for growth and consequently, Black entrepreneurs are four times more likely to be denied a loan than their White counterparts (S. Carter et al. 2015). As capital investment is one of the keys to entrepreneurial success (Bates 2011), this will continue to be a barrier for many BTM leaders. However, even without significant capital investment, BTM leaders have managed to find unique ways to mobilize resources and make an impact in their communities—a testament to the continued strength of marginalized communities and the power of social movements.

Conclusion: The Future of the BTM

Historically, Black Americans dealt with horrific experiences that placed them at “the bottom of the well” and consequently, as Bell (1992) posited, “work and sacrifice . . . have never been sufficient to gain Blacks more than grudging acceptance as individuals. They seldom enjoy the presumption of regularity, the sense that they belong or are competent, which Whites may take for granted” (p. 198). In line with CRT, structural racism and discriminations evident with racialized experiences, difficulty of obtaining loans, and lack of representation, BTM leaders persevere and challenge the hegemony at play. Whether that pathway was through their counternarrative stories or creation of their travel businesses, BTM leaders continue to fight for representation, for their voices to be heard, and their experiences validated—all separate yet united journeys that align with SMT.

As more attention and focus around underrepresented groups within travel and tourism continue to increase, there is still much to learn, discuss, and unpack within these conversations. Evident from this study, discrimination, bias, racism, and inequities are ubiquitous and continue to create inhospitable and toxic touristic experiences and landscapes for Black and people of color. Additionally, continued structural inequities for Black and people of color who own small businesses along with the recent outbreak of COVID-19 as a global pandemic will add another level of racialized bias with loans and additional resources to sustain growth for the BTM. As reporter Hannah Knowles from the Washington Post posited, African American business owners in the United States plummeted more than 40% when COVID-19 shut down much of the economy, which was “a far steeper drop than other racial groups experienced according to an analysis confirming fears the pandemic would deepen inequalities in the business world” (Knowles 2020). Furthermore, marginalized owners may be struggling more than White businesses as they are in areas deemed as “essential workers” and, consequently, more affected by and more fearful of the virus. This collective trauma may be a new catalyst for creating change within the tourism industry that may also perpetuate societal dominance of White owned and operated tourism businesses to hinder the finance and success for locally owned operations—specifically for Black people.

The participants interviewed were painfully aware of their identities as Black Americans who continue to overcome obstacles in order to commit to and advocate for change. This is not a new narrative or novel concept; however, with the ease and accessibility of tools like social media, marginalized groups have created vibrant counternarratives to help promote their own “human capital” and, simultaneously, bring awareness in educating audiences who may be oblivious of their struggles. However, this may add another layer of emotional labor to their cause and fatigue from reliving their own traumatic experiences of persecution, while continuously acting as educators of Black history and the Black American experience. Hopefully, the discussions that unfolded with our participants can contribute to a larger, systemic change within the tourism industry and scholarly landscapes. Hearing Black travel leaders’ experiences, feelings, suggestions, and voices will fill the gap with linking Black travel to social movement and change—more than checking the box for diversity but advocating for needed social justice and equity within the whitewashed touristic landscape.

The BTM continues to mobilize their resources leading to social change, which, in turn, contributes to the development of self-efficacy, consciousness raising, and resource mobilization. Much of what the respondents were sharing was based on being impacted by and subsequently making personal decisions in order to try and change the political landscape. The by-product of this type of consciousness-raising is a phenomenon known as taking on the “personal as political” (Hanisch 1969). Therefore, we argue that SMT is in fact a cyclical process for the BTM where participants of this movement advocate for equity and promote BTM through political and social platforms. For instance, formed in June 2020, the Black Travel Alliance (BTA) is a new group of Black Travel Content Creators from across the globe who are working to hold destinations and travel brands accountable on the issue of diversity in travel marketing and storytelling. Many of the BTM leaders are inclusive of this new initiative and working on numerous projects to highlight the authentic experiences of Black travelers in addition to the gaps in inclusion and equity across travel brands and tourism organizations. In fact, Martinique Lewis, a Diversity in Travel Consultant and President of the BTA, published a Diversity in Travel Report in March 2020 highlighting some of the glaring inequities in marketing and representation across travel brands and companies, conferences, and tradeshows (Lewis 2020). This report was aimed at correcting the lack of representation in the travel industry providing tips and strategies to help increase diversity including providing webinars around topics like “Traveling to the USA for Muslim Women” and building authentic relationships to “continue the conversation and create solutions.”

As an industry, collaborating with these types of organizations and movements will be necessary for authentic lasting change. For example, DMOs can partner with organizations within the BTM in their city to formulate plans to highlight and work with Black and minority owned businesses. When creating new marketing material with the goal of more diverse and inclusive representation, travel and tourism organizations should consult with those Black and underrepresented organizations and influencers in their market to identify gaps in authenticity. Other recommendations include stronger accountability for leading travel brands and organizations and amplifying the voices of Black and other marginalized populations. For instance, when choosing keynote speakers for events and conferences, organizations should consider reaching out to traditionally underrepresented or marginalized populations. Organizations like BTA are doing the legwork of calling the industry to action, simply paying attention and responding to these calls will certainly move the tourism industry toward a more equitable future.

Although this study captured the voices of select BTM leaders, we do realize that some voices were missing, including Black travelers and Black travel movements located outside of the United States. Consequently, we would like to argue for future work to explore the lived experiences of people who participated in travel with BTM companies. In what ways does traveling in BTM-focused excursions create a sense of community? And, within a larger focused agenda, how can Black travel become “mainstream” within the travel industry? Lastly, a discussion around the issues facing BTM leaders, such as gaining access to capital, can help catapult our tourism industry and scholarly research to act as allies in fostering an equitable landscape.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Alana Dillette

1.

Black Americans, Black, and African Americans will be used interchangeably. These terms refer to American citizens of African descent but in differing ways that citizenship has been achieved. Black Americans is an older encompassing term for African Americans and immigrants from the continent of Africa, the Caribbean, and other locations throughout the African diaspora. While “Black” is a political identity that acknowledges an understanding of shared experiences of injustice, by extension of this identity, APA, MLA, AP and other format styles have slowly embraced the respect that should be given to various racial and ethnic groups and how they wish to be labeled. Thus, any mention of those groups ought to reflect this respect and distinction through the capitalization of their group name (i.e., Black, White, African American, Latinx, Syrian, or Lakota).

2.

Sundown Towns are all-White communities, neighborhoods, or counties that exclude Blacks and other marginalized populations through the use of discriminatory laws, harassment, and threats or use of violence. Historians estimate there were up to 10,000 sundown towns in the United States between 1890 and 1960, mostly in the Mid-West and West ().

Author Biographies

Alana Dillette, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Payne School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at San Diego State University and the Co-Director of Tourism RESET. Originally from the islands of The Bahamas, she is always trying to maintain her connection to home through research on sustainable tourism initiatives for small island states. Her other research interests include issues around diversity and inclusion, more specifically looking at the intersection between tourism, race, gender & ethnicity.

Stefanie Benjamin, PhD, CHE is an Assistant Professor in the Retail, Hospitality, and Tourism Management department at the University of Tennessee and the Co-Director of Tourism RESET. Her research interests include social equity in tourism around the intersectionality of race, gender, sexual orientation, and people with disabilities. She also researches film-induced tourism, implement improvisational theater games as innovative pedagogy, and is a certified qualitative researcher exploring ethnography, visual methodology, and social media analysis.

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