07/03/2024
Features & Advice
2024's Most Influential Women in Travel
Image: Influential Women in Travel 2024 (Photo Credit: TravelPulse/
Stephanie M. Jones
Founder & CEO, Cultural Heritage Economic Alliance Inc.
Stephanie M. Jones is the visionary founder and CEO of the Cultural Heritage Economic Alliance, Inc. (CHEA), an organization that's been instrumental in reshaping the travel and tourism industry to better serve underrepresented, small Black and Brown businesses.
Q.Please share some of your accomplishments as they relate to bringing about change in the travel industry.
Jones’ many accomplishments include launching groundbreaking initiatives like Blacks in Travel & Tourism, the Black Cultural Heritage Tours Collective, Diversity Tourism Academy, and the Black Tour Operators Network.
“These programs are designed to create equitable opportunities for Black-owned travel businesses, fostering inclusivity, and ensuring their meaningful participation in the global tourism industry,” says Jones. “CHEA’s Future of Black Tourism initiative provides leadership development and representation for Black travel & tourism leaders, while preparing the next generation to Black tourism leaders.”
Jones's consultancy efforts with notable destinations such as Visit Lauderdale and LA Tourism are also pioneering, blending community-based tourism with sustainable tourism practices in DEI and minority supplier development. These innovative approaches have garnered prestigious recognition including nominations for the 2024 Journey Woman Lifetime Achievement Bessie Award, 2022 Travel+Leisure Global Vision Award, among several others, says Jones.
Jones says her latest venture, Disrupt for Change, “further amplifies” her mission to “revolutionize the travel industry as the first Black woman to host a travel and tourism focused podcast amplifying industry leaders, change agents, innovators and necessary disruptors leading the most pressing issues pertaining to the future of travel & tourism."
Through her podcast, “The Necessary Disruptor with Stephanie M. Jones," Jones says she “engages listeners in insightful discussions on the need for industry disruption through the lens of leadership, sustainability, social impact, innovation, DEI, and entrepreneurship.”
Q.What are your goals for the future - what would you still like to accomplish in your role or within the travel industry?
“Building on an distinguished career that has already significantly impacted the travel and tourism industry,” says Jones, who has set forth ambitious goals for the future, aiming to further amplify her influence and bring about meaningful, systemic change.
Her vision encompasses several key objectives, each designed to foster greater inclusivity, sustainability, and economic empowerment within the sector. In particular, Jones has set her sights on expanding the global reach of BIPOC initiatives, advancing public policy and industry standards, cultivating the next generation of leaders, disrupting the narrative through media, and promoting economic empowerment and wealth building.
"By achieving these goals, I hope to leave a legacy that not only transforms the travel and tourism industry but also creates a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive world," says Jones.
