Stephanie M. Jones
Stephanie M. Jones, Founder & CEO of the Cultural Heritage Economic Alliance, Inc. (CHEA), is a leading cultural heritage tourism thought leader introducing award-winning innovative and sustainable tourism initiatives designed to leverage cultural heritage tourism as an economic driver for fueling local tourism businesses and cultural institutions in underserved communities.
Jones is the founder of some of the most innovative tourism initiatives designed to create diversity, equity, and inclusion in the travel & tourism industry such as Culture On Shore (www.cultureonshore.com), the world’s first global marketplace for cultural heritage tours + activities. She is also the founder of the National Blacks in Travel & Tourism Collaborative (www.blacksintourism.org), an initiative leveling the playing field for small black and brown travel & tourism businesses, assisting them in accessing equitable opportunities in the industry through the Black Tourism Talent Directory (www.blacktourismtalent.com) and Diversity Tourism Academy (www.diversitytourismacademy.com) both launching in 2021.
Jones is the co-founder for the National Cultural and Heritage Tourism Summit. She is a tourism development consultant working with destinations to develop programs that leverage cultural heritage tourism as well as engages and positions local community assets to attract multicultural travelers to businesses and attractions in underserved communities within destinations.
Jones serves on the United States Travel and Tourism Advisory Board, Destinations International's Global Leadership and Governance and Nomination Committees, Northstar Travel Group Black Travel Advisory Board, Newsweek's Future of Travel Awards Advisory Panel, and the Future of Tourism Coalition Advisory Board. She is a Reverse Exchange Fellow for the U.S. Department of State's Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative and presented a Cultural Heritage Tourism Summit in Montego Bay, Jamaica in July 2019 supported by the U.S. Embassy. She was tapped by the Belize Tourism Board to serve as keynote speaker for the 2019 Annual Tourism Conference. Currently, she is pursuing a Master’s in Business Administration degree from Florida International University graduating Spring 2021.
She is a keynote speaker on diversity & inclusion in the tourism industry, multicultural marketing, leveraging opportunities in cultural heritage tourism, local stakeholder engagement and the Black travel movement.
Social media platforms:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniemjoneschat
Facebook: @blacksintourism
Instagram: @blacksintourism
Twitter: @blacksintourism