Chapter 7: Women in Tourism Industry: Opportunities and Barriers

Women represent a significant portion of the global economy, and such participation is important for sustainable development. Since the tourism industry contributes to sustainable economies, this chapter aims at the scholarly identification of women’s participation in tourism, using secondary data (50 journal articles) from Taylor & Francis, Emerald, and SAGE published since 2000. The study establishes that women in tourism have positive career progress. However, certain barriers to women’s participation were identified, particularly socioeconomic, cultural, and political, and especially in developing countries. Hence, to achieve sustainable development, this paper calls for a transformation where women’s potential is fully realized within tourism.