Introduction

Gender equality and women’s empowerment through sustainable tourism

The 2030 Agenda is a tool that rethinks sustainable development at social, economic and environmental levels. This Agenda gave shape to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in which gender equality and empowerment of women is a main issue for the next 15 years. If there is no gender equality and empowerment of women, there cannot be sustainable development. The 2030 Agenda emphasizes that “The achievement of full human potential and of sustainable development is not possible if one half of humanity continues to be denied its full human rights and opportunities” and also states that the mainstreaming of a gender perspective should be systematic and continuous. In other words, a gender analysis should not solely be limited to Goal 5, as this would only weaken gender mainstreaming in the rest of the SDGs. Thus, Goal 5 supports the main- streaming of gender equality in each of the Agenda’s objectives and goals. To achievegenuinely sustainable/responsible tourism, all budgets, statements and expertise must be aware that gender equality and women´s empowerment is a core issue. It is not an extra. On the contrary, it is integral to the initiation, the planning, the execution and the monitoring and assessment of every activity, project or programme about tourism or related to it.

Political willingness and a reappraisal of economic, social and environmental development priorities are indispensable so that the cross-cutting gender perspective is correctly channelled. The best indicator of progress is the increased orientation and investment to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment at national, regional and global lev- els. These are facts, not only words.

Some data about women in tourism

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), the participation of women in the hotel and restaurant service industry is approximately 55.5 percent globally, and reaches 70 percent in some regions. This percentage is 55.9 percent in Spain; 58.4 per- cent in Costa Rica; 58.5 percent in Mexico; 65 percent in Thailand; 76.3 percent in Peru; and 85.6 percent in Lithuania. To some extent, tourism is shaped by female work.

The Global Report on Women in Tourism 2010, jointly commissioned by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and UN Women, provided a global vision of women’s situation in this sector. The report concludes that “women are often concentrated in low status, low paid and precarious jobs in the tourism industry”. Women are understood from a quantitative rather than a qualitative point of view.

To pigeonhole the work of gender and tourism solely in the tourism-related SDGs emphasised by UNWTO (n.d.) (>> Goal 8.9, >>Goal 12b, >> 14.7) would led to a reduction of efforts aimed at consolidating the sustainable development of tourism. It is well-known that tourism has an impact beyond job creation, particularly in terms of environmental, social and political effects generated. Furthermore, employment analysis gives rise to a chain of multiple variables related to the economy, poverty, politics and social health.