Why Indigenous Procurement Matters: Measuring the Impact of Your Travel Spend

For organisations with ESG goals, Reconciliation Action Plans and Indigenous procurement targets, knowing how much you spend with Indigenous businesses is important.

But knowing what that spend can contribute to takes reporting a step further.

Corporate travel can represent significant organisational spend each year. Through Indigenous procurement, that same spend has the potential to contribute to broader social and economic outcomes for First Nations people and communities.

Supply Nation’s The Sleeping Giant Rises report helps put that impact into perspective. Its research found that for every $1 of revenue generated by Indigenous businesses, $3.66 of economic and social value is created. Across the Indigenous business sector, that equates to an estimated $42.6 billion in social value each year.

Creating Impact Beyond Travel

When using InTravel Group, a wholly owned Indigenous business, your travel spend can help support outcomes such as:

  • First Nations employment: industry-leading employment ratios in the Australian travel industry.
  • Leadership by example: raising the bar for the wider travel sector and influencing change.
  • Buying from other Indigenous businesses: hundreds of thousands of dollars in spend with other First Nations suppliers.
  • Showing other Indigenous businesses what’s possible: as a wholly First Nations-owned business making a name for ourselves in the travel industry, we hope to inspire other Indigenous businesses to do the same.
  • Supporting Indigenous-led not-for-profits: thousands of journeys delivered for Indigenous-led NFPs annually.
  • Giving back: donating time and funds to important Indigenous causes in community.

For organisations, being able to measure this potential impact is important. Rather than reporting travel purely as an operational expense, businesses can gain a clearer indication of how their travel program may contribute to their wider ESG, social procurement and reconciliation commitments.

From Travel Spend to Social Value

That’s the thinking behind InTravel Group’s Social Impact Calculator. Drawing on the findings of The Sleeping Giant Rises, the calculator provides a high-level indication of the broader social value an organisation’s travel spend could help create.

It means organisations can start connecting the dollars spent through their travel program with the potential outcomes behind them, providing another meaningful measure to support ESG targets, internal reporting and conversations around social impact.

Understanding What Your Spend Can Make Possible

Indigenous procurement isn’t only about where money is spent, but also understanding what that spend can help make possible.

Explore InTravel Group’s Social Impact Calculator to see the potential social value of your organisation’s travel spend.