Learn about the Black Women Travel Jubilee from founder, Wanda Duncan

Wanda Duncan is giving voice to Black women content creators and business owners via the Black Women Travel Jubilee event this October.

Wanda is a midwestern lady from Illinois who left her career at CNN Atlanta to live and work as a digital nomad. She creates a community for Black women travelers through her Facebook group, weekly podcast, and an annual conference. She’s a member of Travel Massive Atlanta and Kuala Lumpur. 

Read more about Wanda’s story and her thoughts on inclusion in the tourism industry.

How did you get into the tourism industry?

After a failed attempt to leave America in 2010, I tried again in 2016, and didn’t see that Black women had a place to convene online. So I created a Facebook group for us, which led to our deeper, personal conversations on the podcast, and the annual conference where we (were going to) travel and commune as we learn and increase our skills.

As a traveler, community means everything, and it’s been empowering to meet all kinds of Black women who are working on their online businesses and traveling on their own terms.

It’s been life-giving to make space to talk about how we’re impacted not just as travelers, but as Black women.

What is the Black Women Travel Jubilee?

The International Black Women Travel Jubilee is the premier conference for Black women content creators and digital nomads. We’re going to get together on 4th, 11th and 18th of October 2020.

I guess you could say I’m a gatherer. While in Atlanta and often abroad, I enjoy getting people in the same room around a shared interest. It’s an opportunity to make real connections, and the event itself can be so edifying that it fuels you.

What inspired you to create the conference?

I was having such fabulous weekly conversations with so many different Black women on the Black Women Travel Podcast I host, that I thought it’d be great for us to get together in real life, and share in a learning and travel experience while we were at it.

A lot of Black folks are doing work to be included in travel industry events. I wanted somewhere where you didn’t have to do more work on top of the work it takes to present a topic or be on a panel. Somewhere you didn’t have to culturally be on guard.

Who should attend your conference, and what are the key takeaways attendees will leave with?

The mission of the Travel Jubilee is to provide deep training and networking for attendees, leading to more monetization opportunities for their work and travel lifestyles.

Attendees are influential Black women ages 24-44 – content creators, those with online businesses, and those aspiring, primarily from the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada.

They’re a mix of travel and lifestyle bloggers, YouTubers, podcasters, coaches, energy workers, writers, teachers, social media managers, and web and UX designers.

How can the travel industry be more inclusive?

There are a set of questions I believe are crucial for any tourism professional to ask themselves:

• Who are opportunities going to and why?
• How can you use your platform to amplify the voices of those who don’t have the same access?
• How can you monetarily fund or redirect funds to initiatives already in effect?
• What kind of people are in your stock images?
• How often do you share on social media and LinkedIn the work of existing initiatives?
• How many diverse folks have you taken the time to get to know in the travel industry?
• In situations where you have a voice, how often do you recommend diverse people?
• How often do you speak up about lack of diversity, particularly in specific rooms?
• Do you only talk about diversity to those you believe to be affected by it?
• Do you believe there needs to be more inclusion in the travel industry?

It comes down to what your values are. We speak up about our values every day. Can someone look at your online presence and tell that you care?

– Thanks, Wanda, for sharing your story and insights! 

👉 Learn more about how to take part or become a sponsor of the International Black Women Travel Jubilee (4, 11 and 18 October 2020). 

Follow Wanda on Travel Massive to connect with her.