You are currently viewing Anita Mendiratta: Inspiring Education in Tourism, Aviation and Hospitality
Anita Mendiratta

Anita Mendiratta: Inspiring Education in Tourism, Aviation and Hospitality

Travel has been an all-time favorite across all demographics. Be it islands or waterways across the world, on frozen or sand-covered landscapes, across vast wilderness plains, in modern or ancient centers of living, awe-inspiring tourism sites have always grabbed attention across the globe.

But traveling, especially these days, isn’t as simple as it sounds to be. For travellers, different purchasing processes, local practices and bits of paperwork can mean lots of planning. For the industry, different policies, cost structures, not to mention government versus business priorities, add even greater complexity.

To solve the puzzle and find solutions, professionals in Tourism, Hospitality, and Aviation are emerging into the limelight supporting leaders with fresh thinking  around the sector to ensure it is recovered post-pandemic to work for both travellers and the industry alike.

Guiding, educating, aligning and inspiring government and business is Anita Mendiratta, founder of Anita Mendiratta and Associates.

As the Founder and President, she has built a strategic firm working with governments and businesses worldwide in Tourism and Development. What does that mean? She advises leaders on how they can shape the future of tourism in ways that make travelling not only more ‘REAL’ and enjoyable for us all travellers, but more beneficial for the people and places we travel to.

Let us explore her global footprints.

Exceptional Leadership

Anita’s innate ability to feel the ‘heartbeat’ of economic, social, political, and environmental dynamics of nations in times of both growth and crisis enables her to bridge the gap between government and business, inspiring and guiding leaders to find common ground for growth and development. This demands an unprecedented level of experience and expertise across the industry and globe, as well as an influence across the global leadership community.

Since 2020 she has taken on a critical global role as an immensely valued advisor of government and business leaders seeking to understand the impact of COVID-19, guiding them through short, medium and long-term decision-making to re-build with strength and sustainability from not just an economic perspective, but from a humanitarian perspective.

Pushing her expertise into future generations of leadership, Anita generously shares her exceptionally strong industry experience, expertise, insight, and with those studying hospitality, tourism, and aviation – inspiring them to see with their own eyes, and hearts, travel as an essential industry impacting global growth, development, and unity. She has become one of the most trusted and respected voices of influence within her traditional environment of professional activity and only a sought-after partner in the professional academic community. A familiar presence in academic lecture halls as much as government and business summit stages, her commitment to the education community is real.

Anita’s cross-cultural, cross-industrial, and global experience with the public and private sectors has created an innate ability to feel the forces of change impacting nations, good and bad. With so much change occurring at all levels, in all parts of the world, few sectors are more perfectly timed to come together now, as our world rebuilds post-pandemic, like Travel (incl. Tourism Development, Hospitality, and Aviation) and Education.

Holding graduate and post-graduate Business and Arts degrees from leading academic universities in Canada and the UK. Through her life’s work, she evolved her academic qualifications into the platform for industry impact at a global scale. Her corporate foundations with IBM, Unilever, and The Coca-Cola Company were further strengthened through an international consulting role with one of WPP’s finest firms. A powerful part of her education has been received by simply being in the global travel and tourism industry.

Prevailing Despite the Odds

Anita took a bold step in 2002, creating her consulting firm: CACHET Consulting [now operating as Anita Mendiratta & Associates (AM&A)]. Marking 20 years of strong, highly valued work in, with and for the industry, today she stands tall not only as an immensely trusted and respected global strategic advisor, diplomat, author, and on-air personality in Tourism, Aviation & Development but also as an increasingly in-demand partner of some of the finest academic higher-level institutions in the world.

Why is the academic world knocking on her door?  Context. She has the ability to push students – undergraduate and post-graduate alike – past theories, titles and textbooks to those human truths inspire a personal sense of ‘this is why I love what I am learning/doing’ This skill of tapping into people’s sense of purpose and connecting that to work / studies instinctively unlocks for them stronger commitment, performance and enjoyment­.   

Mounting 2022 and Beyond

Since the beginning of the business, Anita and her firm have worked closely with clients around the world: governments, business leaders, NGOs, academia, individuals, and global entities – to fulfil one core purpose – “Inspiring Greatness”

This commitment to inspiring greatness has become an integrally important part of AM&A working within the academic environment. The opportunities are there, but we still, as an industry and as a sector, need to embed ways of ensuring that the growth path is truly inclusive, impartial, sustainable, and purposeful.

The academic community has today even greater responsibility in this regard. Therefore, every student needs ‘Champions’- teachers, professionals, and peers who can support students and graduates in realizing their dreams in the industry, and within the industry community, for the long term,” says Anita.

Accomplishing Unique Identity

The combination of Anita’s unique elements and style has resulted in

  • ‘Most Influential Woman in Tourism’ in 2019,
  • ‘Top 25 Inspirational Executives in Travel/Hospitality in 2021, and
  • ‘Most Innovative Women Leaders Inspiring the World 2022.’

She is also honored to be:

  • Special Advisor to the Secretary General of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation,
  • Strategic Advisor to CNN International,
  • Strategic Resource to the World Bank Group, WTTC, IATA, and ATAG
  • Co-creator and Co-Host of RISE

Interlinking Diversity

A major factor motivating AM&A and everything Anita does is the ability to continually learn from, about, and with the world as a system of beliefs and, importantly, interconnected ways of working, growing, developing, and caring.

Over the past decade, Anita has evolved her Travel & Tourism expertise into the Aviation space. Aviation is a highly specialized industry. It is highly technical, highly innovative, and highly integrated at a global level. It also carries with it a high level of risk.

Anita’s expansion of expertise into the aviation space has required a high degree of professional learning to appreciate the technical, economic, and psychological acumen inherent within Aviation, especially regarding the quest for sustainable aviation. Our world needs aviation for people and places to be connected, for opportunities to be unlocked, and for good to happen as one global community, but aviation needs to advance in a genuinely sustainable way – sustaining economies, societies, cultures, communities, and important environments. Aviation’s role in global travel and tourism is fundamental.

Influencing Leadership

Leadership is a profound responsibility, especially in times of renewal, as our world currently faces. Maintaining an active sense of gratitude, and grace, in leadership ensures that one remains purposefully inspiring, which in turn yields the influence of real value.

Anita considers it a huge privilege to be trusted as a leader across her various roles as a global strategic advisor, diplomat, speaker, guest lecturer, moderator, author, and on-air personality, ever respectful of her responsivity of inspiring greatness within and for others.

Encouraging Learners Across the Globe 

Anita addressed students by saying, “One must tap into those around you, letting them know how you seek their access, their understanding, and their support to make your dreams come to life in the same way that they no doubt had someone helping them, realizing their own.

She adds, “Step forward – clearly define for yourself what you want to see in your career and the world, and importantly what not. And then let people know the championing that you seek, the learning that you are after, both strategic and operational. Continue to push for all the learning that you know is out there. The opportunity is yours. The world awaits you.”

As an inspiring leader, Anita conveyed her message to students by saying, “Mother Nature gave us 2+ years to really think about not only what we are doing, but critically, how. We must work together, now, to ensure that we all, as important role players in the global Travel, Tourism, Hospitality, and Aviation community, take the learnings during global grounding and apply these as the foundation of a future for our industry that re-establishes travel as a force for good for all. We must not waste this time.” she concluded