Tricia Barnett initiated and co-created Equality in Tourism with Stroma Cole in 2013, the first organisation working to ensure women’s equality within the tourism industry and to facilitate women’s opportunities within it. She is involved in the organisation’s development, project management and external consultancy. 

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. At Tourism Concern, she worked with a wide range of stakeholders, forming the pioneering Ethical Tour Operators’ Group, working as an advisor to the UK’s leading operators and with the UK government to include sustainable tourism development in their policies and programmes. Tricia has been a key player in international dialogue to establish global codes of practice for sustainable tourism as well as working with grass-roots groups. 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’s contribution to the industry has been recognised by a number of awards and accolades over the years, among them a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011 from the British Guild of Travel Writers and being named a runner-up in the Observer Awards as the Green Campaigner of the Year and one of the 50 Most Influential Women in the UK Industry by the Travel Trade Gazette. In 2013, she received an honorary doctorate for her work from The University of Brighton.