Women in Tourism Project – Terms of Reference

INTRODUCTION

Sri Lanka Tourism Alliance is a private sector industry association that was formed post the Easter attacks with a vision to build a resilient and strong private sector that embraces sustainable tourism best practices and is committed to driving tourism benefits to a wide cross-section of stakeholders, especially women.

PROJECT BACKGROUND

The impact of COVID-19 on global tourism has been devastating, with the livelihoods of those working directly and indirectly in the sector at risk. This ongoing health pandemic creates significant challenges for businesses to survive, reopen and adapt to changing global visitor needs. This project aims to help minimize the detrimental effects on women, their economic life, and their wellbeing by fostering and encouraging greater participation, collaboration, and skills development for women in the tourism industry, especially in a COVID context.

TARGET AUDIENCE

1. Women already employed in the tourism industry
2. Women who are considering a future career in the tourism industry (including currently unemployed women, students, and women from other sectors who might be interested in pursuing a career in tourism).
3. Employers

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Our Women in Tourism Program has 3 main initiatives:

1. Women in Tourism Mentoring Program
2. Women in Tourism Advocacy Program
3. Women in Tourism Awards Program

This TOR focuses on the Women in Tourism Mentoring Program, the Women in Tourism Advocacy Program and the Women in Tourism Awards pre and post promotion.

1. Women in Tourism Mentoring Program

The focus of the Mentoring Program is to establish a community of female collaborators utilising a mix of online and in person events. These sessions will be targeting both established women in tourism as well as those females that are interested, studying or early into their tourism career. The aim of the sessions will be to facilitate a dialogue around topics that are timely and relevant, sharing insights and tips with the wider community that will benefit their career in tourism with a special emphasis on how COVID has impacted the industry and the participation of women.

This TOR covers all online events AND advertising and promotional activities of the in person events. Tourism Alliance or our chosen nominee will handle the coordination of the in person events.

2. Women in Tourism Advocacy Program

The Women in Tourism Advocacy program will be focused on celebrating established female leaders in tourism as well as emerging leaders in tourism through a series of video vignettes and photo stories that will be pushed out through Tourism Alliance channels and media. The aim of this program is to highlight these female trailblazers and their contribution to tourism with the aim of inspiring others to join the sector and pursue a career in tourism when the industry inevitably bounces back post COVID.

3. Women in Tourism Awards
The Women in Tourism Awards is the culmination of all of the above events. This TOR will specifically focus on the following;

• Campaign to advertise the awards program and create buzz and awareness around the event and drive entries/applications.
• Creation of all marketing collateral including but not limited to event logo’s ad visuals, blogs etc.
• Post event publicity and winner profiling campaign

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

• Increase the Alliance’s female membership representation to 25% (from 17% currently) through this initiative within 12 months.
• Raise the awareness and participation of women in tourism, reaching 300,000+ tourism organisations and women in the sector as well as a minimum of 1000 women to be actively engaged in the program via online and face-to-face channels in year 1.
• Support Sri Lankan female tourism workers to collaborate, grow and develop their skills further through the creation of a female online community and access to Sri Lanka Tourism Alliance channels and relevant skills training content specifically 75% satisfaction from program participants AND 35% more interested in pursuing a career or further skills as a result of the program.
• Women in Tourism Mentoring Program – Minimum 750 women in tourism to be engaged in the program via online and face-to-face channels in year one.
• Women in Tourism Advocacy program – The 6 video Vignettes and the 12 photo stories to be completed and submitted to the Tourism Alliance within the agreed timelines.
• Women in Tourism Awards – Through the proposed activities Tourism Alliance expects the chosen vendor will be able to secure a minimum of 50 applications for the Women in Tourism Awards program.

ASSIGNMENT SCOPE

We are hoping to receive proposals from partners that have the ability to handle this project in its entirety or portions of this project. (A Single partner that can handle the entire process end to end is preferred).

Women in Tourism Mentoring Program

Online Sessions

• The Alliance will develop the list of topics, session format and speakers who will be participating in the Mentoring program and be responsible for delivering the sessions online.
• The chosen vendor will be expected to formulate and present a comprehensive digital blueprint /plan focused on how these online sessions designed by the Alliance can be brought to life including details on proposed ad budgets / reach figures and expectant participant rates.
• The chosen vendor will also need to support the online event logistics including but not limited to creating the webinar and any supporting collateral, content and visuals.
• The chosen vendor will be responsible for implementing all the activities as detailed in the initial plan.
• A maximum of 7 online sessions will be rolled out over a 12 month time period with online sessions scheduled to take place every 6 weeks.

In Person Sessions

• The Alliance will develop the event theme, session format and potential speakers / panelists.
• The chosen vendor will be expected to formulate and present a comprehensive digital plan on how these in-person sessions will be promoted digitally including ad budgets / reach figures and expectant participant rates and plan for post event publicity.
• The chosen vendor will be expected to implement all activities listed out in the submitted plan.
• Maximum of 2 regional face-to-face events will be carried out as part of the Mentoring program over a 12 month period with the first face-to-face event expected to take place in the fourth quarter.

Community Creation

• Detailed plan on how the community will be engaged and grown online including associated costs and media plan/reach for digital advertising.
• The chosen vendor will be responsible for the execution of all activities listed out in the submitted plan.

Membership Drive

• Formulate a digital plan to drive Alliance membership through this program
• The chosen vendor will be responsible for the execution of all activities listed out in the submitted strategy.

Women in Tourism Advocacy Program

• The Alliance will select 6 established females in tourism to feature in the video vignettes and 12 emerging leaders in tourism to feature in the photo stories.
• The chosen vendor will be expected to handle the end to end production of these 6 video vignettes and 12 photo stories profiling established and emerging female tourism leaders
• The chosen vendor will be responsible for:
  • Concept and style for videos /photo stories
  • Scripts, art direction and set direction for the videos / photo stories
  • The videos must include English, Sinhala & Tamil subtitles as appropriate.
  • The lengths of the videos to be suggested by the chosen vendor based on concept
  • The final videos / photo stories to be given in a format that can be used on Sri Lanka Tourism Alliance website and Social
  • Conduct any pre-shoot research/interviews/recess etc.
  • Carry out a maximum of three rounds of editing of videos under supervision of the Tourism Alliance.
  • Provide the final video and photo stories according to a timeline mutually agreed with the Tourism Alliance.
  • Tourism Alliance will connect and introduce interviewees.
  • Coordination of shoots to be handled in consultation with the Tourism Alliance team.
  • Each video must be shot on location. Some locations might be out of Colombo. Tourism Alliance will pick locations that can be travelled to and from within a day. Any associated costs (travel /refreshments etc.) involved with shooting out of Colombo to be billed on actuals incurred.
• The chosen vendor will be expected to complete the production of the video vignettes and photo stories within 3 months including post production.
• The chosen vendor must also submit a comprehensive digital strategy on how these videos will be used online to achieve the objectives listed above including advertising. The associated campaign should be spread out over a period of 8 months.
• The vendor must provide details on proposed ad budgets /media channel splits, reach figures and proposed relevant engagement metrics assigned to these spends.

Women in Tourism Awards

The Alliance will be handling the Women in Tourism Awards program and will be responsible for the development of the awards program theme, event format, awards categories, finalising locations and handling the actual event production on the day. (We will be outsourcing parts of the actual event i.e. actual event production which is not included in this TOR)

Awareness Campaign

• The chosen vendor will be expected to formulate and submit the strategy on creating awareness around the awards program including call for applications and post event promotions and publicity.
• The chosen vendor will be responsible for creating all marketing collateral including but not limited to logo, ad visuals and blogs.
• The chosen vendor will be responsible for the execution of all activities listed out in the submitted strategy.
• The Women in Tourism Awards program will be the final event to take place under this program and is expected to be held in 12 months time. Event preparation will need to happen 4 months in advance.

CONTRACT MANAGEMENT

The vendor will need to appoint a dedicated contact person that the Sri Lanka Tourism Alliance can liaise with on these programs

QUALIFICATIONS AND SELECTION

• The Vendor must have prior experience handling digital projects of this nature on budget and on time.
• The vendor must demonstrate results obtained through similar projects that have been carried out.
• Tourism experience is preferred.

DELIVERABLES

• The vendor will be responsible for delivering all of the programs as per the strategy documents submitted at the start of the project.
• The chosen vendor must submit detailed reach figures for each of these programs and budget breakdown (broken down by ad spend, management fees, and any other associated costs) for each project separately – mentoring/advocacy/awards.
• The vendor must provide a monthly report with agreed KPIs and Benchmarks to Tourism Alliance to track progress against KPIs

REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

The chosen vendor will be required to submit monthly performance evaluation reports to Sri Lanka Tourism Alliance.

INDICATIVE TIMING

This project will be spread out over a 12 month timeframe, with projects running parallelly during this time.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Interested parties must submit the following details by 27th August 2021

1. Proposed approach document highlighting how all 3 activities will be implemented (Max 3 pages)
2. Budget breakdown by project (including Ad Spend / production Costs /Management fees / etc.) including Reach and Frequency by project (Max 1 page)
3. Past Experience (1 Page) and relevant experience of the team members who will be handling this project.

Please send in your proposals to [email protected] by 27th August 2021. The subject of the email should read: Women in Tourism Project Proposal – {Insert Company Name}

If you would like more information about the project please write to us at [email protected]