Our Opportunity Together
Written by: Guest on June 05, 2020
KHM Travel Group’s Core Value of People First calls us to affirm the priceless value of people, in that we will always treat others with respect, honor, and dignity.
In response to the current social climate and injustices impacting the Black community, KHM Travel Group President and CEO, Rick Zimmerman recently shared the following words about our opportunity together with our family of travel agents and team members.
KHM Travel Group is dedicated to supporting our diverse network of travel agents, team members, suppliers, clients, and communities we serve. While we typically serve behind-the-scenes as advocates for representation and recognition within the travel industry, as President and CEO, I feel it is time to speak out about the injustices that have been happening in our country for hundreds of years. KHM Travel Group stands against the police brutality in the death of George Floyd, other African Americans who have lost their lives due to senseless injustice, in addition to the violent response by some police departments against protestors.
Our country has a history of violence, systemic racism, and racial profiling against the Black community and the marginalization of other people because of their race, sexual orientation, religion, ability, or other characteristics. We each have a role and moral responsibility to effect change in our communities and introducing our clients to travel is one thing we can do. The world is full of diversity. Exposure to different cultures, ethnicities, and ideals, helps build bridges to close gaps and bring people together.
Just as it is important to KHM Travel Group to serve our agents and their clients, it is equally important that we are looking inward and asking ourselves the hard questions regarding our own implicit biases to identify those things that we can do to fully live our Core Values, to ensure we foster an inclusive company culture and community.
I’d like to thank those that have prompted me to put out a message to our KHM Travel Group family. By working together and engaging in below-the-surface dialogue, which can be sometimes uncomfortable, we will grow thereby producing systematic change one person, business, and industry at a time, which is what our country really needs. I did not want to make a statement without having a clear, peaceful plan of action that could affect change. Something that could be consistent and persistent.
We have seen people come together, police and citizen alike, to protest injustice and the need for such change. The issue of racism and the challenges of equity and equality will not be solved overnight or with a few simple answers. It is incumbent on each of us to first acknowledge the size and scope of the problem and second, commit ourselves to being part of the solutions. I am often encouraged when I see the admiration and care from one agent to another during our events or in our Facebook Group. Let’s keep that movement alive and agree together to take it to another level for others to see and hopefully emulate. And let’s remember to care for and love one another in the process. Respect, Honor and dignity are important elements of our People First Core Value.
This company, which we have all had a hand in building together, one agent at a time, is much different than any other company I have been a part of, as well as any other company I know of. We have found opportunities in the past to make ourselves better and this is another opportunity for all of us.
I pray that together we can work toward a more fair and just society for all of us.
Rick Zimmerman
President and CEO of KHM Travel Group
Be a Part of the Change
KHM Travel Group’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee
Formed in 2017, our Diversity and Inclusion Committee is a volunteer group of corporate team members and independent travel agents. Together, this committee seeks ways to increase the representation of agents and clients within our organization and the travel industry as a whole.
Current KHM Travel Group Agents can join this committee in the Agent Portal.
Organizations to Support
- American Civil Liberties Union – works in the courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people
- Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective – seeks to remove the barriers that Black people experience getting access to or staying connected with emotional health care and healing
- Emmett Till Legacy Foundation – brings awareness to Emmett Till’s place in history in order to educate, equip, inspire and empower youth, women and their families for a better future
- George Floyd Memorial Fund – assists the family of George Floyd as they grieve this loss and continue to seek justice
- Gianna Floyd Fund – helps provide for the needs of George Floyd’s 6-year-old daughter Gianna Floyd
- My Brother’s Keeper – reduces health disparities by enhancing the health and well being of minority and marginalized populations
- NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund – fights for racial justice through litigation, advocacy, and public education
- Travel Professionals of Color – provides minority travel professionals with the tools to make them more profitable and increase awareness within the travel community