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Travel Unity Summit Series

4th Annual Travel Unity Summit

Economic Development Through Diversity

  • October 27-28, 2018
  • Lake Placid & Tupper Lake, New York
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Key Contributors

About the Summit

The 4th Annual Travel Unity Summit brought together a unique mix of local community members, regional business owners, influencers, and major tourism boards. Rather than being a closed-door industry meeting, this summit served as a public forum to dismantle barriers within the travel and hospitality ecosystems, emphasizing that the future of travel resilience relies on welcoming a majority-minority demographic.

Focus

The summit focused on the intersection of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) with regional economic development. It was specifically aimed at exploring how regional destination marketing organizations (DMOs), local businesses, and hospitality leaders can cultivate a broader, more inclusive visitor base to drive sustainable economic growth.

NY Travel Fest panel

The future of travel resilience relies on welcoming a majority-minority demographic.

Key Discussions

Economic-Driver icon

DEI as an Economic Driver

Strategizing how to position diversity and inclusion not just as social goals, but as core elements of regional tourism business plans.

Inclusive Marketing

Best practices for travel brands, tourism boards, and hospitality networks to accurately represent and appeal to multicultural audiences, specifically women, minorities, youth, and travelers with disabilities.

building alliances icon

Building Alliances

How local communities and larger state entities (such as the New York State Division of Tourism) can work together to promote accessible and welcoming destinations.

Host Destination

The event took place in the scenic Adirondack region of Upstate New York. By splitting the venue between Lake Placid and Tupper Lake (specifically hosted at The Wild Center), the summit leveraged a backdrop heavily associated with outdoor recreation to underscore how rural and nature-focused destinations can actively work to become more diverse and accessible.

Day 1 - Oct 27
Lake Placid, NY

Day 1 focused on public forums and regional collaboration discussions.

Day 2 - Oct 28
Tupper Lake, NY
(The Wild Center)

Day 2 workshops emphasized actionable DEI strategies in outdoor and rural tourism spaces.

Session Format

Morning Public Forums

Open discussions centered around regional diversity demographics and tourism accessibility.

Collaborative Workshops

Hands-on sessions focused on short-term, actionable solutions for local destination marketing organizations (DMOs).

Community Engagement

Interactive conversations between local, leaders, tourism organizations and attendees to spark ongoing inclusive travel movements.

Summit Agenda

Saturday, October 27, 2018
Morning Sessions

Why to attend Saturday’s sessions and workshops:

  1. You are interested in attracting new business to your destination/attraction.
  2. You would like to be ready when new markets arrive.
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Session Details

Session #1

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Saturday, October 27, 2018
2:30-5:30 PM
Afternoon Breakouts

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Session Details

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Sunday. October 28. 2018

Why to attend Saturday’s sessions and workshops:

  1. You are interested in attracting new business to your destination/attraction.
  2. You would like to be ready when new markets arrive.
TIME
TOPIC
SPEAKER
ROW 1 Content 1
Content 2
Content 3
ROW 2 Content 1
Content 2
Content 3
ROW 3 Content 1
Content 2
Content 3
ROW 4 Content 1
Content 2
Content 3

Session Details

Session #1

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Speakers & Moderators

The Travel Unity Summit brought together a diverse group of leaders from tourism, media, marketing, and community organizations. These speakers shared their insights on inclusive travel, storytelling, community engagement, and the future of the tourism industry.

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Speaker Bios

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Testimonials

"My personal and professional mission continues to want to inspire the public to travel. I am a huge advocate for women's empowerment and travel. I truly believe that travel helps reduce stereotypes, bigotry, and disconnection between nations."
Jeannette Ceja
Bilingual Travel Journalist & Global Public Speaker
“We are excited to have the Travel Unity Summit in the region. Any time the area can facilitate conversations about diversity and accessibility it benefits all our destinations. We look forward to this conference being the beginning of a continued conversation.”
Kristy Kennedy
Director of Tourism, North Country Chamber of Commerce and Adirondack Coast VCB
“In the Adirondack Park we have a world-class wilderness for all to enjoy. We also have communities throughout the park living in harmony with nature but struggling to remain economically viable in a rapidly changing and diversifying world. The Travel Unity Summit is going to be invaluable, not only to the travel and tourism industry, but to our communities as well, because it will be an event that reaches past these fault lines and pulls all the threads together, from the economic benefits of diverse travel to ecotourism to sustainability and more.”
Pete Nelson
Co-founder, Adirondack Diversity Initiative
“ROOST sees the Travel Unity Summit as an opportunity to learn, grow, and connect with individuals and organizations in the travel industry who understand the value of a diverse, inclusive Adirondacks. Our organization believes that diverse communities are strong communities, and we think the summit will engage local businesses, officials, and community members in a way that challenges and informs them to not only continue ongoing conversations about inclusion, but also to spark new conversations on how to attract a broader range of travelers to our region.”

Host Sponsors

Silver Sponsors

Bronze Sponsors

Sponsor Partners

Summit Highlights

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