Asian Genders In Tourism

While gender research in tourism has become increasingly important within Western academic circles, little has been written from an Asian perspective. This book is the first to address this knowledge gap and to fully explore Asian gendered identities and tourism. The chapters reflect upon the role of tourism in producing, reiterating and resisting existing gendered structures of power in Asia. The authors attempt to reconcile both Asian and Western perspectives on gender using their own personal experiences of understanding and negotiating Western and Asian identities and practices. The book paves the way for important reflections about the ontological and epistemological meanings of ‘Asia’, ‘gender’ and ‘tourism’. It is an important resource for researchers from a range of disciplines including tourism, leisure studies, Asian studies and feminist and gender studies, as well as for professionals working in the tourism industry.

Gender, Work and Tourism examines the central role played by women in the tourism industry. It discusses the nature of their work and the ways in which tourism creates tensions between the attitude and conduct of tourists and the beliefs and behaviour of local women. Among the areas explored are: the segmentation of tourism work in Northern Cyprus; women's and men's work in Bali and the division of social and political power; gendered tourism work in Mexico and the Philippines; material and ideological changes in sex tourism in South-East Asia and the exploitation of South-East Asian women in Japan.

This book focuses on women in tourism in Muslim countries, specifically where a woman can be seen as a tourism consumer, or a woman producing tourism. This book discusses the role of women in the Muslim world and founds that socio-culturally Islam has a greater impact on women than men. The process of identity construction and the religious values of women have also been extensively researched. But little is known about the role of Muslim women in the tourism industry and this book addresses these themes in the Asian context. This book explores these ideas as defined key categories; Muslim women from Asia travelling to a non-Muslim country, non-Muslim women travelling to Asian Muslim countries, and Women working in the tourism field in Muslim countries. This book highlights Asian countries as holding a complex mixture of cultures and identities. As Muslim communities are central in many Asian countries the tourism experience is different mainly because of cultural norms and religion. Ultimately, this book examines whether and how these complexities enrich both women and tourism industry within Asian context.

Examines the impact of tourism from the viewpoint of gender studies focusing on women's needs, expectations, roles and opportunities in this rapidly changing and important global industry. Begins with a broad review of the field and highlights key conceptual issues. Contains a selection of case studies ranging from sex tourism in South-East Asia and gender in tourism planning to the impact of tourism on women in traditional societies. Introduces a range of notional models for the study of these themes, together with suggestions for future research agendas.

Tourism has become the world's largest industry, according to the World Tourism Organization; no surprise when one considers that it incorporates the world's oldest profession. In some developing regions, such as the Caribbean or the South Pacific, tourism is the primary sector in which significant economic growth takes place. In other regions, including areas of Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and formerly communist eastern Europe, tourism is just beginning to take off. In all of these areas, tourism's impact has been decidedly mixed. Nowhere is this more visible than in the context of women's roles in tourism. The contributors demonstrate the many ways in which gender determines the roles they play as both tourists and providers of tourism as product and service. A valuable contribution to tourism studies, women's studies, and the literature of economic development. The premises of this unique collection of research are that women's roles in tourism are gendered, just as are their other roles in gendered societies; that tourism affects women differently than it affects men; and that women themselves are affected in different ways by tourism depending on such factors as race, region, and class (leisured consumer vs. working producer, or guest vs. host). The contributors cover theoretical perspectives, including those provided by feminists and economic development analysts; women's roles in tourism in the mature industries of the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, and the South Pacific; women's roles in the less-developed tourist destinations of the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, and eastern Europe; and implications for the future of economic development policy and of gender relations in tourism.

While contemporary popular discourses dismiss gender and feminism as passe, patriarchy and sexism continue to limit human possibilities around the globe. This collection of studies seeks to advance feminist and gender tourism studies with its focus on embodiment.

This book considers what the transition into the Asian Century means for some of the most urgent issues in the world today, such as sustainable development, human rights, gender equality, and environmental change. The book critiques Anglo-Western centrism in tourism theory and calls on tourism scholars to make radical shifts toward more inclusive epistemology and praxis. From the British Century of the 1800s to the American Century of the 1900s to the contemporary Asian Century, tourism geographies are deeply entangled in broader shifts in geopolitical power. In the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, the significance of shifts in tourism geographies and the themes addressed in this volume are more urgent than ever. That the world faces increasing turmoil is abundantly clear. Yet, amidst the disruption to the everyday, it is hope and compassion, but also political-economic restructuring that is needed to reset the tourism industry in more sustainable, equitable, and ethical directions. In no uncertain terms, the pandemic has forever changed the tourism industry as the world once knew it. This book, therefore, sets out to collectively build on the momentum of the inclusive scholarship that Critical Tourism Studies-Asia Pacific is renowned for, while also asking readers to pause and reflect on the possibilities and challenges of tourism in a post-pandemic Asian Century. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal, Tourism Geographies.

This book explores the ontologies, epistemologies, methodologies, and methods that inform tourism qualitative research conducted either by Asian scholars or non-Asian scholars focusing on Asia. In addition to providing a platform for researchers to publish their qualitative journeys, it aims to encourage further Asian qualitative tourism research production. The book not only includes chapters from Asian scholars but also non-Asian tourism researchers with a focus on Asia, as their chapters are crucial to represent the multiplicity of realities constituting ‘Asia’. It is of interest to the whole tourism academic community as it provides novel methodological insights from a non-Western perspective, which at the moment are often silenced by dominant (Western) voices.