Alessandra Alonso, Founder of Women in Travel CIC and the IWTTF (International Women in Travel and Tourism Forum), joins Christine for this week’s soulful conversation as a guest in our Trailblazer Series, produced in collaboration with Strictly Jane Austen Tours.

Words of Wisdom

If people saw inclusion as an engine for growth, inclusion wouldn't be seen as divisive, but actually would be seen as a natural evolution — because ultimately it's an industry of people.
– ALESSANDRA LOTUFO ALONSO

Alessandra is the pluri-nominated, award-winning founder and MD of Women in Travel CIC and a professional with 20 years of experience in travel and tourism. Alessandra started her career as a trainee in Tourism at the European Commission and later gained senior roles in companies including The World Travel & Tourism Council and KPMG. Alessandra is a keynote speaker and regular contributor to travel publications. She was awarded the JourneyWoman Award in 2021 for her lifetime dedication to gender empowerment.

Alessandra has been named one of 9 women transforming travel by the Matador Network; one of 50 ‘most important women in travel’ by Wonderlust Travel and recently completed the Certificate in Diversity and Inclusion from the University of South Florida.

The Tour Guiding Academy from Women in Travel CIC

The Women in Travel CIC Tour Guiding Academy was created in 2021, during the period when the travel and tourism industry was beginning to reassemble itself after the COVID-19 pandemic — and when it became starkly clear that the women in travel were the first to lose their jobs without a sign of returning.

Launched in collaboration with Intrepid Travel, the Academy began with three women, who built an immersive experience centered around their own stories, their own communities, and the neighborhoods of London that most visitors to the city have never thought to enter. From that beginning, the Academy has grown into a full platform operating across multiple European cities, training women to develop and deliver tours that blend cultural immersion, personal narrative, and lived community knowledge into experiences unlike anything a conventional tour company would design.

A participant in the Academy might develop a Saudi food tour that begins at the only Saudi restaurant in central London — guests remove their shoes, sit on the floor, and learn about traditions of hospitality from a guide whose own family history is woven into the telling. An Ethiopian tour takes visitors through Shepherd's Bush market, past stalls selling coffee beans and produce that the average passerby would not recognize, and into the story of a community that helped build a neighborhood decades ago and is still there. A Sri Lankan food tour, soon to launch in South London, brings a different heritage and a different set of stories to a city that holds them all simultaneously, largely unseen. It’s all intimate, meaningful, and impactful.

"These guides are gateways to different worlds, to different cultures," Alessandra says. "They are opening the door, letting you in, inviting you in." The effect is felt in both directions. For the guide, the process of developing a tour often involves a journey of personal rediscovery — confronting and ultimately celebrating an origin or heritage that the pressures of integration had pushed to the margins. For the visitor, it is frequently the first time they have encountered that community at all. "Cities don't just have one story," Alessandra says. "They have a multitude of stories, and all of these stories are worth being found and being told."

Shifting Who Counts as an “Expert” and Whose Stories Are Worth Telling

Not every woman who enters the Tour Guiding Academy becomes a guide, but roughly one in four does. For the others, the value lies in the self-knowledge gained by slowing down and asking what they actually want, in the community built with other women navigating similar terrain, and in the shift that comes from being seen as someone whose story is worth hearing.

"Some women don't necessarily ask themselves: what do I want, what do I like?" Alessandra reflects. "They are always so busy looking after everyone else." The Academy creates structured space for that question — and the answers, when they come, tend to move outward into the community. Women who feel better about themselves bring that stability home and into the lives of others, and the ripple grows.

For those who do become guides, the ripple takes a different and more visible form. Their tours shift economic activity toward businesses and communities that rarely benefit from tourism revenue. They change the itineraries of visitors who return to a city for the fifth or tenth time and finally find something they had not seen before. They create advocates — people who take the experience home, recommend the tour to friends, and sometimes find themselves boarding a plane to a country they had previously felt too uncertain to consider visiting. "If I like this," Alessandra says of the experience, "now I'm going to feel comfortable going — because I've had an experience. These people are already my friends."

Christine connects this to a thread running through the entire Trailblazer Series: the question of who history recognizes as an expert, and whose account of a place counts as authoritative. The answer? The story comes first. The destination is the backdrop. A guide might take visitors to a museum they have already been to and illuminate it from a perspective they have never encountered. The credibility comes from lived knowledge that the tourism industry has spent decades overlooking.

Allyship and What It Actually Takes to Create Lasting Change

Women in Travel CIC launched its allyship program in the same year as the Tour Guiding Academy. Twenty-plus years of working as a woman in the travel industry, and as someone who had come to a new country and built a career without the networks that smooth the way for so many, had taught her that you cannot create systemic change without the people who currently hold the system's levers.

The program began as male allyship with pairing senior male industry leaders with women across the industry who could benefit from their networks, their practical experience, and their willingness to open doors. The men who participated consistently reported learning more from their mentees than they gave. Perspectives, experiences, and assumptions surfaced in conversation with women who had been navigating those same systems from the outside. The program has since broadened, and allies now come from across the gender spectrum.

"There's no way we are better off on our own," Alessandra says. "When women come together, magic happens — but we need everyone to contribute and everyone to support." She describes her vision as a matriarchal revolution, the elevation of a collaborative leadership model that the industry currently under-uses. The goal is not a room full of only certain voices. It is a room where every voice is genuinely heard. "Everybody can be someone's ally if they practice the skills and recognize their privileges," she says. "We all need an ally, and we can all be one."

Join the Soul of Travel Community

Soul of Travel Episode 259 At a Glance

In this conversation, Christine and Alessandra discuss:

· How the Women in Travel, CIC Tour Guide Academy centers women's voices and narratives as a pathway to economic empowerment

· Expanding the ripple effect beyond our own lives and shifting how we perceive who is the expert and whose stories are worth being told as a part of history

· The importance of allyship in creating big, lasting changes in the industry

Join Christine and Alessandra LoTufo Alonso now for this soulful conversation.

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Related UN Sustainable Development Goals

Sustainable Development Goal #5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

Resources & Links Mentioned in the Episode

Learn more about Alessandra and Women in Travel at https://www.womenintravelcic.com

Follow Alessandra Alonso on your favorite social platform:

Special thanks to Strictly Jane Austen Tours for your partnership in the production of our Trailblazer Series!

About the Soul Of Travel Podcast

Soul of Travel honors the passion and dedication of people making a positive impact in the tourism industry. In each episode, you’ll hear the stories of women who are industry professionals, seasoned travelers, and community leaders. Our expert guests represent social impact organizations, adventure-based community organizations, travel photography and videography, and entrepreneurs who know that travel is an opportunity for personal awareness and a vehicle for global change.

Join us to become a more educated and intentional traveler as you learn about new destinations, sustainable and regenerative travel, and community-based tourism. Industry professionals and those curious about a career in travel will also find value and purpose in our conversations.

We are thought leaders, action-takers, and heart-centered change-makers who inspire and create community. Join host Christine Winebrenner Irick for these soulful conversations with our global community of travelers exploring the heart, the mind, and the globe.

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Credits. Christine Winebrenner Irick (Host, creator, editor). GUEST NAME (Guest). Original music by Clark Adams. Editing, production, and content writing by Carly Oduardo.