Race Matters: Four Seasons Resort Assumes Influential South African Blogger’s Blackness Isn’t “Luxurious”?

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IG Influencer Shut Down By FOur Seasons Over Race?

Being an influencer is a big business on instagram and with tons of folks living and making extra bucks off of it. One user, Jessica Nabongo, uses her account to showcase her exoctic travels. Some of her trips and stay are sponsored or comped by certain folks before hand in exchange for her sharing her experiences and folks received her experiences through photos, perhaps even mimicking her vacation, it’s a business. Nabongo however, is showing the dirty side of it…

After reaching out to the PR team at Four Season, she was seemingly shut down, and the reasoning sounds like the person judged Jessica from her looks and not her ability to influence her users. She knows this, because she hadn’t shared anything with them up front.

Swipe through to read the email she received.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BdvKApQFVS4/?hl=en&taken-by=thecatchmeifyoucan

Jessica explained eloquently in a separate post why she, with her own successful travel blog and agency, felt abubtly rejectly over her looks:

As a travel influencer, I reach out to brands prior to traveling in hopes of obtaining complimentary stays. Sometimes hotels do not respond, sometimes they tell me they cannot accommodate me, sometimes they say yes. The other day I received the below email from the Four Seasons property in Nevis.

The confusion here is that I had not given them any demographic information about my followers nor my clients. What she concluded from her review of my “profile and social accounts” was that my “demographic was not in line with their [our] brand.” The only demographic information she could have gleaned from the information I gave her was my race, she could assume my age and she could assume my gender identity. I sent an email asking her to clarify what was meant by “demographic” and received this in response.

Before I dive in, I want to note, I recognize that the Four Seasons is a private company and it is their right to determine who they want to market to and how they want to market to them. I am writing this to share with my audience how this specific company views me and the people that follow me.

I did a poll on my Instagram account to find out if my followers are visiting the Four Seasons and what I found is that in fact 33% of respondents have stayed in Four Seasons properties in the past. And several respondents sent me DMs and shared with me the multiple properties that they have stayed at. But honestly none of this matters because they specifically noted “luxury brand clientele WHICH IS IN LINE WITH OUR BRAND.” To be clear, this is coded language to say we do not want you or anyone who follows you to visit our hotels unless it is behind closed doors.

You can read her full story here.

This is a somewhat unexplored topic but relevant. Do YOU think corporations really shutting out Black influencers from making a living in this thriving industry? What’s your take on The Four Season’s response?

Hit the flip for more of Jessica’s exquisite travel snaps.