Thanks to Dhaka’s The Daily Star for making World Tourism Day a newsworthy event. The theme is “Tourism opens doors for women,” in recognition of the opportunities tourism creates for women entrepreneurs and workers. Despite the many gains tourism has offered to women, gender stereotyping and sex tourism pose problems.
Data suggest that women’s role in the tourism industry is generally stronger than that in the workforce as a whole. Horizontal segregation (with women in typically ‘feminine’ jobs) and vertical segregation (with women being concentrated in the lower positions rather than managerial ones) predominates.
Interestingly (because it applies to my work!), the author suggests that
Development of the handicraft industry should form an important part of strategic planning for community participation in tourism, especially the participation of women.
My project is concentrating on the export of handicrafts, but I hadn’t really thought of it in terms of the tourism industry (I suppose it is counted as an export if you sell something to a foreign tourist). Check out India’s Tourism Ministry site for more info.
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