A panel at ITB Berlin addressed the challenges faced by female leadership in the tourism industry from a practical and research perspective.

How do women make it into the top management tiers of large corporations? What can make launching a career easier for them and how should they confront resistance?

These were the issues discussed at the panel discussion entitled "Courage, Power & Women in Action: Female Leadership in Tourism". Katrin Rieger, Director of Travel Sales at HanseMerkur Reiseversicherung, who has held management positions in tourism for 18 years, is familiar with the prejudices women often encounter. She was often told "You're too nice," but she is convinced that leadership can also succeed behind the scenes – without dominant behaviour and with the involvement of male colleagues.

Panel “Courage, Power & Female Leaders: Female Leadership in Tourism” at ITB Berlin 2026. From left to right: Ann-Kathrin Kopp, Lisa-Marie Küchler, Katrin Rieger, Maren Merken.

The dominance dilemma

There is a term for this in research: Role Congruity Theory, according to which deeply entrenched stereotypes create a contradiction between soft, feminine characteristics and dominant leadership, explained Lisa-Marie Küchler. She wrote her Master's thesis on "Gender-equal leadership in tourism" at Stralsund University of Applied Sciences. She believes it is all the more important to remain authentic and reinterpret leadership.

Maren Merken from Tourismus Turn and founder of the communications agency merkenschoenberg is familiar with the prejudices that assertive women encounter: they are quickly considered exhausting and complicated. They need to break away from this. Over time, external acknowledgment had become less important to her, she said. She advocates allowing room for insecurity at the workplace.

Tips for young professionals

Maren Merken advises young women to raise their profile early on and engage in self-marketing. Her advice is that competence often develops along the way, e.g. learning by doing. Katrin Rieger recommends building networks from the start and having confidence in oneself. Women tend to overthink decisions.

Lisa-Marie Küchler believes that companies have a responsibility to attract more women to leadership positions by requiring gender-neutral skills in the recruitment process and offering flexible work schedules. This also pays off economically: gender-diverse teams achieve better results.

itb.com/en