Tracey Simone
Living with my mother in North Carolina and visiting my father monthly in Maryland, I became use to domestic travel early on. I went on my first international trip at 12, after traveling to San Francisco, California for a family reunion. My family decided to spend the day, driving to Tijuana, Mexico, right across the border. I remember crossing the border, border patrol having to check our car and ID’s, and as a child, wondering what was the big deal? After arriving, I soon learned the harsh reality that so many Mexicans were living; limited drinking water, unsanitary living conditions, and extreme poverty. I remember children the same age as me, if not younger, trying to sell candy and souvenirs for little to nothing. After returning back to NC, I became curious to the world beyond the US.
People were being told the wrong story. And I too, was guilty of believing it.
On my 15th birthday, my dad and I traveled to Jamaica. I remember thinking, why was it that almost no one looked like me at the resort, however everyone looked like me on the island (beyond the hotel district)? As a child, I did not understand. As I got older and began to see more of the world, I then got use to returning home to my friends saying things like, “You have money; your always traveling”, “I can’t believe you went there! It’s not safe.”, “I don’t see any people that look like me there, Why would I go?”. They’d tell me this story they had been fed for decades. That they couldn’t travel. That it was too expensive or it just wasn’t meant for them to explore.
Entering college, I knew that I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to study abroad. Being a broke college student, I had no idea how I was going to make it happen, but I knew somehow it had to! My senior year, an opportunity came up for me to study abroad in South Africa for a month. After working two jobs and crowd sourcing through GoFundMe, I finally came up with the money. While I was preparing, I did not know this would change the entire trajectory of my life.
While staying in Johannesburg and Cape Town, I had an opportunity to be guided by my professor, who was a native of South Africa. During this short period of time, I was exposed to so much! From the rich history about the Apartheid and Nelson Mandela at Robben Island to working with some of the 13.8 million+ people who lived in poverty.
African-Americans spend 48 billion dollars on travel annually, and that’s in the United States alone. That doesn’t account for other communities of the diaspora living outside of the United States - Afro-Latinos, Black Europeans, etc. It also doesn’t account for all the money spent internationally traveling. Factor all of that in and the numbers are much higher.
I chose travel because 17% of African-Americans take one or more international trips and travel more than six times every single year, yet 2.6% of ads focus on African- American audiences. I knew that being well traveled resulted in higher income, higher impact, improved job performance, and a wealth of overall health benefits.
But I also knew a couple more things; I knew that people of color were more likely to travel and make a purchase if advertisements reflected them. I knew that there was a huge, untapped potential (as well as lack of representation) because as people of color, we are top consumers of media.
“It served as a teachable moment - when I traveled to China and people began to take pictures with and of me, as I knew for a fact that I was the first black person many of them had seen.”
I came back home not only humbled, but extremely inspired! I wanted to share with my friends and family not only how beautify and rich the country was culturally (and physically), but the resilience and stories of so many overlooked people. I had seen too many times, Americans visiting exotic vacation destinations; only to stay at a resort, eat Pizza, and soak up the sun. Exploiting them for their beauty; yet failing to acknowledge the rich culture within these destinations; and the stories and experiences shared by the people beyond the hotel/resort walls.
