At ITB Berlin in March, we’ll be celebrating the winners and runners-up of the fourth Gender Equality Champion of the Year Award. Entries are open until 26th January to tourism and hospitality businesses of all sizes – from small community-based operations, to globe-spanning firms. If your organisation is committed to advancing gender equality, we’d love to read your application.
Our judging panel, made up of six practitioners and advocates deeply engaged in gender and tourism work, will identify our 2026 Champions. Here we introduce each of the judges and their work towards creating a more equitable industry.
Michelle Mason, Sustainable Hospitality Alliance
Michelle Mason is the Social Impact and Destination Programme Manager for the World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance (the Alliance), which has been the lead sponsor of our award for four consecutive years.
In her role at the Alliance, Michelle leads initiatives that address critical social challenges in the hospitality industry, ranging from ethical recruitment practices to fostering community engagement. She also takes the lead in building destination partnerships, ensuring sustainable and socially responsible outcomes for all stakeholders.
As a sought-after public speaker, Michelle raises awareness about these pressing issues, inspiring industry leaders to take action and implement sustainable, socially responsible strategies. Her work empowers the hospitality industry to create meaningful social impact, benefiting employees, communities and the broader global ecosystem.
Charmarie Maelge, Gender Specialist
Part of our associates network, Charmarie is the Founder Director of the Responsible Tourism Partnership (RTP) in Sri Lanka and created and operationalised the National Sustainable Tourism Certification Scheme (NSTCS) for the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) in 2019. She is a certified trainer and assessor in tourism vocational education and has trained over 600 youth to enter the tourism industry.
Charmarie has also worked as a Women’s Business Development Adviser and Gender Specialist for UNDP & USAID. Her gender research and analysis has focused on existing gender dynamics within the tourism sector, in order to better understand the legal, cultural, and financial practices at the community, institutional, and national levels for the USAID Indo-Pacific Opportunity Program (IPOP Project) under Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) activity.
Lucy Ferguson, UNWTO Consultant
Lucy Ferguson is an international specialist in gender issues in tourism and another member of our associates network. She has collaborated with UNWTO since 2010 and was the Lead Consultant for the second edition of the Global Report in Women in Tourism.
As part of the current UNWTO Centre Stage project, Lucy authored the “Gender Mainstreaming Guidelines for the Public Sector in Tourism” and the “Gender-inclusive Strategy for Tourism Businesses”. She has trained key public and private sector stakeholders across the tourism sector in a wide range of countries, as well as 65 new trainers to lead this training.
Lucy recently produced a study on women’s empowerment in tourism for the Indian Ocean Rim Association.
Héctor de Castro, Regenera Luxury
Also joining the panel is Prof. Héctor de Castro – a leading voice shaping the shift of luxury hospitality toward regenerative models and the chairman of Regenera Luxury, the global regenerative programme and certification for hotels and retreats, as presented by UN Tourism, also featured by Forbes USA, among other leading media. Over a 25-year international career, he has led growth across four continents for both SMEs and Fortune 500 companies, spanning hotel openings, performance transformation, and independent audits for iconic brands including Shangri-La or Banyan Tree, alongside numerous eco-luxury boutique hotels.
Today, Héctor advises entrepreneurs and hotel owners on building highly profitable, regenerative-by-design hospitality models, while actively supporting social and educational initiatives. Grounded in the conviction that equity, dignity and respect are foundational to regenerative tourism and a healthy society, he serves as a judge for leading industry awards and is a frequent speaker at international regenerative tourism forums.
Rika Jean-François, MissionRespo, Queer Destinatons
With an academic background spanning topics like sustainable development, ethnic identities and quality management, Rika Jean-François was Head of ITB Corporate Social Responsibility for many years. Through this role, she championed human rights and diversity in the industry, as well as taking responsibility for the Indian subcontinent.
She continues to do so with her own company MissionRespo, and also supports Queer Destinations, a start-up that connects governments, destinations and companies related to the tourism industry with the LGBTQ+ community in order to create safer and more inclusive tourism experiences for all as their head of International Business.
Rika served through the years on the board of the IGLTA, the IGLTA Foundation, of the Pacific Asian Travel Association (PATA) and the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC). She is currently a board member of The Roundtable for Human Rights in Tourism, as well as of the Institute for Tourism & Development, supports many international sustainability committees and is a jury member at several global tourism contests. You’ll often hear her speaking at responsible tourism events.
Tricia Barnett, Equality in Tourism
Completing the panel as moderator is Equality in Tourism Co-director Tricia Barnett. As director of Tourism Concern from 1991 to 2011, Tricia helped build the organisation into a key player for advocacy and change in sustainable tourism both in the UK and globally. She has researched and written on community-based tourism, fair trade tourism, water and tourism, labour conditions in hotels, tourism as trade and human rights.
Tricia co-founded Equality in Tourism with Professor Stroma Cole in 2013 to ensure women’s equality within the tourism industry and to facilitate women’s opportunities within it.
Speaking about chairing the Gender Equality Champion of the Year Award panel for 2026, she commented: “I’m excited to collaborate with this diverse panel in finding our next Gender Equality Champions. It’s always inspiring to read the applications and learn about the ways organisations around the world are advancing gender equality. The judges’ hands-on experience in gender and tourism helps us identify practices that are making a real difference.”
Submit your Gender Equality Champion of the Year Award 2026 application by 26th January. The shortlist will be revealed in February, before the award presentation at ITB Berlin in March. If you have questions about the application process, don’t hesitate to get in touch with Chistaa at chistaa@equalityintourism.org.