YouTuber Thobi Rose Highlights The Challenges Of Being A Black Person In The Travel Industry Business
YouTuber Thobi Rose Highlights The Challenges Of Being A Black Person In The Travel Industry Business. In an interview on The Lebo Lion Show, South African YouTuber and Travelpreneur Thobi Rose highlighted some of the challenges faced by black travellers in the travel industry business. She also emphasised that she started her business because she felt like it was her duty to change the face of traveling because there is a belief that most black people do not want to travel.
Thobi highlighted that she feels like black people are not really being represented enough in travel magazines or travel blogs to actually show that they are also interested in travelling to other places. She feels like black people do travel but aren’t as marketed or shown as white people in the business. Therefore it leaves a gap for people to discriminate against black people and for people to still hold certain stereotypes about black people in the travel industry.
She said, “Firstly it’s knowing that I need to change the face of travel, it’s always been a huge thing for me, I just got a little bit tired of sitting in a plane and opening the magazine and not seeing myself represented there, and secondly the notion that black people do not travel or do not have the money to travel, for me it was rethinking that and debunking that for other people and making people comfortable and actually saying seeing Thobi do it makes you feel more comfortable and seeing someone else do it makes you feel like it can be done. That’s why for me it is very important to change the face of travel.”
“… To not go on a page on Instagram and just see white faces there, I’m sorry it’s not enough especially in Africa guys and I still fight that fight. I go to pages and I go why am I not seeing a person of colour here?” Thobi added. She also said that she fells like there are certain places that people believe are not meant for black people, and she wanted to got to these places and challenge these views. She also feels it’s important for black people in the industry to talk about these challenges so that things can transform and change for the better.
