A critical analysis of tourism, gender and poverty reduction

Research on gender and poverty reduction through tourism has largely focused on the notion of women's "economic empowerment". Yet, there is still insufficient understanding about what is involved in enabling women to participate in tourism in development contexts and in ensuring they benefit economically. The paper explores the complexity of the changes that necessarily are involved in the relationships between tourism development, gender and poverty reduction, and it does this through two case studies of non-western tourism development settings, one a rural township and World Heritage Site in central Turkey, and the other a parish in south-western Uganda. The analysis identifies a variety of socio-cultural factors that constrained and enabled women and men to engage in tourism development and to benefit from it. It also explores the ways in which individuals negotiated the gendered discourses by resisting and also participating in particular cultural practices. It is concluded that the relationships between tourism, gender and poverty reduction must be approached through a nuanced understanding of the significant changes that are implicated in these relationships, as well as through a consideration of the fluid and contradictory ways in which women and men are positioned, and position themselves, in relation to those changes.