Inclusive by Design: Rethinking Culture in Travel Companies

This 43-minute panel at ITB Berlin 2026, moderated by Charlotte Lamp Davies (partially sighted, straight female), brought together Stuart Greif (Forbes Travel Guide, straight ally), Matt Welle (CEO, Mews, gay), and Stephen Joyce (Protect Group, gay, part-Indonesian/part-British, came out ~2.5 years before the session). The panel opened with a deliberate subversion of the 'not diverse enough' critique: a panel of seemingly similar white men who are actually gay, multi-racial, and joined by a partially sighted moderator — making the point that hidden diversity is pervasive and assumptions based on appearance are unreliable.

Stephen Joyce set a personal tone by sharing that he came out only two and a half years prior, after 30+ years in travel tech, during which he had benefited from a heteronormative career. He argued that visible LGBTQ+ representation at leadership level is essential because 'we won't attract diverse people into leadership if they don't see themselves represented in leadership.' He used the 'first fax machine' analogy — nobody wanted the first fax machine because there was no one to fax — to describe why someone has to be the visible pioneer for underrepresented groups.

Matt Welle framed inclusive culture as inseparable from psychological safety and productive conflict. He argued that inclusivity cannot be delegated to HR — it must come from the CEO and founders. He disclosed Mews has a gender pay gap he described as 'embarrassing' and that they lack adequate self-reporting infrastructure for neurodiversity and racial diversity. He acknowledged not knowing how many neurodivergent employees Mews has because the culture of self-reporting is not yet fully safe. He practices public vulnerability, including changing his mind mid-meeting and stating it aloud, and shared that opening offsite sessions with personal struggles ('I'm really struggling personally with the workload') immediately shifts group dynamics. He also noted that the word 'DEI' is now 'weaponized' and he reframes diversity conversations as personal human stories — for example, sharing an employee's miscarriage experience to make colleagues understand how it affects career decisions without triggering the DEI backlash.

Stuart Greif grounded inclusion in business performance, citing Harvard Business School research showing diverse teams outperform homogeneous ones. At Forbes Travel Guide, he reported 50% women at executive level, 65%+ from senior director level, nearly 27–30% LGBTQIA+ representation at their annual event, which featured Chris Gardner (African-American) as opening speaker. He distinguished three forms of advocacy: mentorship (coaching/listening), sponsorship (actively advancing someone), and allyship (day-to-day advocacy). He recommended thinking across four spheres of influence: immediate team, one-on-one mentoring, nexus organizations (e.g., Hospitality Hued, Women Travel Tech), and industry-wide amplification via LinkedIn.

Stephen Joyce's previous company actively recruited from women-in-STEM pipeline programs, not just for diversity reasons but economic ones — entry-level female developers were less expensive than senior male ones. The outcome: female programmers had longer retention than male counterparts, attributed to feeling genuinely valued rather than innate loyalty. The panel closed with each panelist giving a 90-day action item: Stuart — connect someone underrepresented to one meaningful contact; Matt — find one topic that makes you uncomfortable and learn about it (he cited gender pronouns and neurodiversity as areas he still finds difficult); Stephen — share something vulnerable in your next team meeting within the next week.