Diversity

Diversity in Travelling

Testimonials from Travel Experts

In early 2017, Busbud decided to become a more diverse organization, which was both driven by Busbud’s mission of making a world in which every person can fulfill their need for travel, where one can easily visit family and friends, access education and economic opportunities, as well as the lack of diversity in the tech industry.

This is how the Omnibus project came to life, an initiative to promote diversity in tech, whether it’s inside the company, in our local community, or eventually more globally through our community of millions of travellers. We also laid our commitment to carry out 5 actions every quarter and publicly report on these actions quarterly, which we now have achieved for eight consecutive quarters.

Whether someone is commuting for work or school, discovering the world on vacation or hopping on a bus to go visit friends and family, travelling is a great learning experience. For the first quarter of 2019, we have decided to reach out to two travel experts and collect their testimonials on what they had learned about the concept of diversity through their various travels across the globe. The question asked was simple: How has travelling changed your perspective on diversity?

Testimonials from Travel Experts

The first expert that we contacted is Annie, digital nomad, and owner of the travel blog Annie Anywhere. With a weak spot for street art, discovering cities by foot, and outside-the-box activities, Annie’s travels have taken her all over the globe since 2014. When we asked her the question How has travelling changed your perspective on diversity?, she mentioned that her travels have made her discover graffiti in braille.

“Street art is one of my favorite reasons to visit a city and I quite often build my itineraries around it. It adds to the vibe of a city and tells a lot about the creativity, political views and values of a population.  With the popularity of Instagram and the value people give to the sights and general look of a destination, I often ask myself if I would travel this much if I was blind. In Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, I encountered an initiative that made me cheer. An artist had decided to translate graffiti in braille. Soon after, I did some research and discovered that a lot of people had done similar projects around the world. I honestly don’t know who came up with the idea first, but I know that we can now find braille graffiti now in the USA, France, Russia and elsewhere. I would love to see a similar initiative in my hometown of Montreal. I’m thinking about doing it myself!”

The second travel pro we caught up with is Melissa, from the adventure travel blog, A Broken Backpack. She left Canada with less than $2,000 in June 2014 and never looked back. Focused on long-term travelling, her travel blog is filled with tips and tricks on how to stay on the road. When asked the question How has travelling changed your perspective on diversity?, Melissa mentioned that travelling and getting to know other cultures has made her learn how to appreciate life:

“Personally, I think that diversity makes everything more interesting. That’s because I felt a lack of stimulation (and probably a bit of boredom) in my own country that I decided to travel and explore the world. Diversity brings a lot of great things in our daily life whether you travel or not. It provides you with tasty meals, fun cultural experiences and opens your eyes to new destinations and realities. When I first traveled to Asia, I was amazed by the way people lived. They would constantly smile even though they could be handling rougher life conditions. It made me realize I should learn to let go of the little things that would make my life so miserable for no obvious reasons. It made me appreciate the things that really matter, it made me smile more. That being said, I had something to learn out there and I’m learning a bit more every day.  Meeting people from different corners of the world also reminded me that in the end, we’re all the same.”

Young woman smiling while traveling in a tropical location
Melissa Giroux from A Broken Backpack during one of her travels

From inclusive street art to learning to appreciate the little things, travelling can teach us a lot on diversity and inclusion. By travelling, you can be closer to the people you love. You can also discover more about yourself and the world around you. By empowering travellers through technology, Busbud aims to create a more accessible world for everyone, by offering access to sustainable transportation