UNWTO Report Calls for End to Gender Discrimination in Tourism
UNWTO Report Calls for End to Gender Discrimination in Tourism
A new World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)/UN Women report launched at the ITB tourism fair in Berlin (March 11, 2011) says that women make up an important percentage of the tourism workforce, but more work must be done to close the wealth and skills gap between men and women employed in tourism.
According to the Global Report on Women in Tourism, the tourism industry is one of the world’s largest generators of wealth and employment, provides a wide range of income-generation opportunities for women, particularly in developing regions. Women are almost twice as likely to be employers in tourism as compared to others sectors. Tourism also offers leadership possibilities, with women accounting for one in five tourism ministers worldwide, more than in any other branch of government. Nevertheless, women are often “concentrated in low-skill, low-paid and precarious jobs,” typically earn “10 percent to 15 percent less than their male counterparts” and tend to perform jobs such as cooking, cleaning and hospitality, according to the report.
Gladys Acosta, UN Women Director for Latin America, pointed out that women’s contribution to the tourism sector is often invisible. “In the Caribbean, for example, 84 percent of contributing family work -- unpaid -- to tourism activities is provided by women. This is one of the key areas to address in promoting gender equality in tourism,” she said. “This report highlights the crucial role tourism plays in empowering women politically, socially and economically,” said UNWTO Secretary-General Taleb Rifai. “But it makes it very clear that more must be done to close the gender gap, in particular ensuring equal pay for men and women for equal work, raising employment quality and ending all discrimination.”
The report shows relevant data in five main areas -- employment, entrepreneurship, leadership, education and community, comparable by regions. It provides policymakers and operators with recommendations on how to promote more gender-sensitive policies and integrate gender equality into corporate decisions, including strengthening the legal protection of women in tourism employment, providing higher levels of training and greater opportunities for women to develop their businesses. “Greater gender equality will contribute to the overall quality of the tourist experience, with a considerable impact on profitability and quality across all aspects of the industry,” according to the report.
Since 2008, UNWTO and UN Women (formerly UNIFEM) have been working together to bring gender issues to the forefront of tourism, promoting gender equality, women’s empowerment and the mainstreaming of gender issues in national tourism policies and corporate decisions. The World Tourism Organization, a United Nations specialized agency, is the leading international organization with the decisive and central role in promoting the development of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. UN Women is the UN’s global champion for the rights of women and girls. Founded to accelerate progress in ending gender discrimination, UN Women works to achieve equality between women and men across all aspects of development, human rights, leadership and peace.
