On Thursday, 9 October, InTravel Group hosted a thought-provoking panel discussion shining a spotlight on the travel industry’s contribution to First Nations outcomes.
The Melbourne event brought together a diverse audience of corporate travel buyers, Indigenous entrepreneurs, and travel industry peers, all sharing a common interest in creating a more inclusive travel landscape.
The all-Indigenous panel featured representatives from major travel brands including Qantas, Accor, and InTravel Group, and was facilitated by Indigenous business entrepreneur Sara Stuart. Panellists Belinda Murdoch (Qantas), Kedea Atherton (Accor), and Dwayne Good (InTravel Group) shared their insights and experiences on what genuine progress looks like in practice.
Travel Weekly spoke to panellist and InTravel Group Founder Dwayne Good about the significance of the event.
“There’s been nothing like this done before in the travel industry,” Good told us. “There’s been limited content at travel conferences around Indigenous engagement, but nothing has been done like this event.”
Good, a Bundjalung man and 20-year travel industry veteran, started InTravel Group 11 years ago because he noticed there weren’t many other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples working around the travel industry, particularly in corporate travel.
“There were certainly no First Nations leaders, no First Nations people shaping the growth of the industry. I wanted to help solve that gap by becoming a voice in the travel industry, to lead by example, to advocate.”
Good told us that Indigenous engagement has been quite a popular topic in the last 5-10 years, and that there’s been some great momentum being built around it.
“It’s not necessarily a bad situation that we’re in,” Good said. “This event was to capitalise on the great momentum and inspire more outcomes.”
Like many sectors in Australia, the travel industry has made significant progress over the past decade, building strong momentum through reconciliation initiatives and Indigenous engagement strategies. “However, in many instances companies are choosing to implement Indigenous engagement because it looks good for marketing and PR, but really it’s just box ticking,” Good said.
Now is the time to move beyond box-ticking and shift towards a more genuine, outcome-driven approach, where change is meaningful, measurable, and enduring.
Good said that while the travel industry has made great strides in recent years, there is still much more work to be done. “We organised this event in the hope that it sparks a call to action, to drive even greater outcomes and inspire our industry to keep pushing for genuine, lasting change.”
Much of this progress is already happening behind the scenes, and these strong foundations now present an opportunity to amplify that impact, to bring more visibility to the great work being done and inspire others across the industry to do the same. As some of the country’s most visible and trusted brands, major travel companies have an enormous capacity to influence, through employment, procurement, partnerships, and storytelling.
“However this is not just a travel industry-specific conversation,” Good said. “This is throughout the whole country, within every industry and businesses in general. The event was hoping to spark a bit of inspiration for companies to listen to a great discussion yes about the travel industry, but also about how to increase Indigenous engagement in general.”
Key takeaways from the event included:
- Representation matters: While progress has been made, Indigenous representation across the travel industry remains limited. Real impact starts when we see more First Nations people working, leading, and shaping decisions within the industry.
- Visibility and influence: Large travel brands have a unique opportunity and responsibility to showcase First Nations products, services, and talent to millions of local and international travellers.
- Authentic investment: Real outcomes come from genuine commitment, supported by a top-down approach coupled with organisational structure and a culture that drives lasting change.
- Collective action: True progress will come from collaboration across the entire travel ecosystem, when corporates, agencies, suppliers, and Indigenous businesses work together to create opportunities, share knowledge, and hold each other accountable for outcomes.
- The future of engagement: In five years’ time, the goal is for Indigenous engagement to be business as usual, a natural, embedded part of how the travel industry operates every day.
While great work is being done nationwide, gaps still exist between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, and there is still much more the business community can do to drive meaningful and lasting change.
“One of the big visible gaps that still remains is employment in the travel industry,” Good said. “If we see those numbers increasing it’s a good measurement.”
However Good told us that there are still no other leaders in the travel industry with a First Nations background. “So we’re still really lacking that Indigenous representation in the travel industry, and we’re certainly not shaping the travel industry.”
“Awareness is so important,” Good added. “We want to motivate people to actionable change.”
