Celebrity Cruises Partners with Annie Leibovitz for Inclusive Marketing Library Open to All Travel Companies

Recognizing a lack of inclusive imagery in travel marketing, Celebrity Cruises has teamed up with world-famous photographer Annie Leibovitz to create the All-Inclusive Photo Project (AIPP). The goal of the project is to improve the representation of all people in travel marketing materials. The main feature is a free to use, open-source travel image library.

“For far too long, ‘all-inclusive’ in the travel industry has meant everything on your vacation is included in one price,” said Celebrity Cruises president and CEO Lisa Lutoff-Perlo. “We set out to challenge this conventional thinking by imagining the phrase through the lens of others. What Annie and all of the talented artists involved in this project have captured so beautifully, is that for vacations to really live up to the marketing moniker ‘all-inclusive’,’ then they should start by using images that are inclusive of all, not just a few.”

Along with Annie Leibovitz, participating photographers include Giles Dulley, an English documentary photographer and a triple amputee; Naima Green, a Black, queer New York-based photographer; and Jarrad Seng, an Australian-based photographer, filmmaker and creative director of Malaysian-Chinese descent.

“We want our marketing – as with everything we do as a cruise line – to represent how the world looks, and what we experience on our ships daily, as guests and crew from all walks of life work and play together to create a really special onboard environment,” Lutoff-Perlo said.

“As our travel advisors work to rebuild their businesses post-pandemic, this new library will be a great free resource for marketing imagery that represents the true diversity of travelers and that we hope also helps them diversify their clientele and bring new travelers and cruisers to them and Celebrity,” she added. 

The photo collection features a wide range of models, musicians, athletes, artists, activists, refugees and more as they enjoy the varied offerings on Celebrity’s ships and within the destinations visited. The images are available to all travel companies and advisors for their own more inclusive marketing efforts.

Among the models featured is Jillian Mercado, a professional fashion industry model with muscular dystrophy, photographed by Leibovitz while enjoying a culinary experience onboard a Celebrity ship. Also photographed by Leibovitz is John Forte, a black recording artist who rose to stardom with the multi-platinum hip-hop group “The Fugees,” who now works with at-risk youth. He appears with his family on their first cruise vacation together.

Other subjects are Abby Chava Stein, the first openly transgender woman raised in an Hasidic community; Amy Conroy, a three-time Paralympian; Micah Ramos, a Filipino, non-binary model; and Ester Onek, a social worker, advocate and refugee from the South Sudan, among many others.

“As global brands, we have a powerful platform to act as a catalyst of positive change,” said Michael Scheiner, Celebrity Cruises’ CMO. “We know we have more work to do and we hope we inspire others to join us on this important journey. By leveraging our collective travel industry might, we can begin to make travel marketing truly ‘all-inclusive.’”

The All-Inclusive Photo Project launches in early April. For more information on the photographers and talent featured in the AIPP, travel advisors can visit www.celebritycruises.com/PhotoProject