APL Media

APL Media is an award-winning content agency based in Kentish Town, leading conversations in the travel and lifestyle sectors across trade and consumer media. Our talented teams of editors and designers produce guides for national newspapers including The Telegraph, Evening Standard and The Guardian, as well as the successful travel magazine National Geographic Traveller (UK). APL Media continues to innovate within the National Geographic brand in the UK market, founding Food by National Geographic Traveller (UK) in 2018 and creating the National Geographic Traveller (UK) Food Festival, now heading into its fourth year.

FINN Partners

FINN Partners is one of the fastest-growing global, independent agencies, with a heart and a conscience. We serve clients through a powerful combination of hands-on partnership, highly specialised expertise, and a values-driven culture that champions integrity, collaboration, and innovation. More than an agency, we are a bold collective of communications advocates, stewarding brands, protecting reputations, influencing public policy, and leveraging data and analytics to shape the most important conversations of our day.

Intrepid Travel

Intrepid Travel is a B-Corp certified small group adventure travel company offering more than 1,150 trips on every continent designed to truly experience local culture. The company’s mission is to create positive change through the joy of travel. Globally renowned as a leader in responsible travel, Intrepid is the first tour operator with near-term science-based climate targets through the Science Based Targets Initiative, and its not-for-profit, The Intrepid Foundation, has raised more than AUD$13 million for partners around the world.

TTG Media

TTG Media is an independent B2B media business that has sprung out of the Travel Trade Gazette magazine, which celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2023. These days TTG is just the starting point for a wide range of media products supporting and championing the industry, including its flagship event The Travel Industry Awards. The purpose-led business of 30+ professionals is underpinned by its modern-day mission: to promote Smarter Better Fairer Travel.

Travel Media Awards Step Up welcomes interest from travel media companies that may want to participate in the scheme. Please contact: stepup@travelmediaawards.com

The programme has been launched in response to research indicating there is a lack of diversity and inclusion in the travel media industry.*

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*Sources

• In journalism, research from Statista shows 12% of the UK workforce belong to a non-white ethnic group, while this group makes up 18% of the population. In PR, it’s 10%; in publishing, 15%.

• A recent study published by Statista shows 59% of journalists are male, compared with the population average of 49%; in PR, there’s a skew in the other direction – 67% of the industry is female, according to the PRCA.

• The outlook is more positive for LGBTQ+ representation, and it’s important to maintain these figures. In the UK, around 10% of the population identify as LGBTQ+. In the publishing industry, Publishers Assocation data shows 13% of staff are LGBTQ+.

• In the UK, around 24% of the population have a disability. In journalism, one data set from the NCTJ shows a comparable 22% having a disability or a work-limiting health problem. Meanwhile, in the publishing industry, just 13% have a disability; in PR, 4%.

• Data from Press Gazette shows 80% of journalists come from households with professional occupations, yet only 33% of the country fall into this demographic, indicating an over-representation of middle- and upper-class voices in UK journalism. The data for the publishing industry is 67%, according to the Publishers Association.

statista.com,  pressgazette.co.uk, prca.org.uk, ons.gov.uk, publishers.org.uk, researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk, nctj.com