Women as Producers and Consumers of Tourism in Developing Regions

by Yorghos Apostolopoulos, Sevil F. Sönmez, Dallen J. Timothy

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275963972
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	04/30/2001
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

YORGHOS APOSTOLOPOULOS is Research Associate Professor of Sociology, Arizona State University.

SEVIL SÖNMEZ is Assistant Professor of Tourism Management, Arizona State University.

DALLEN J. TIMOTHY is Assistant Professor of Tourism Studies, Arizona State University.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface
Perspectives on Gender, Tourism, and Development
Working Producers, Leisured Consumers: Women's Experiences in Developing Regions by Yorghos Apostolopoulos and Sevil Sönmez
Gender in Tourism: Theoretical Perspectives by Heather J. Gibson
Women in the Mature Tourist Destinations
Island is a Women: Women as Producers and Products in British Virgin Islands Tourism by Colleen Ballerino Cohen
Destabilizing "Maturity": Women as Producers of Tourism in Southeast Asia by Sara Kindon
Power, Women, and Tourism Development in the South Pacific by Tracey Berno and Trudy Jones
Women in the Less Developed Tourist Destinations
Tourism behind the Veil of Islam: Women and Development in the Middle East by Sevil Sönmez
Gender, Tourism, and Development in Latin America by Antónia Casellas and Briavel Holcomb
The Forgotten Giant: Women's Role in Africa's Delayed Tourism Development by Peter U.C. Dieke
From the "Iron Curtain" to the "Dollar Curtain:" Women and Tourism in Eastern Europe by Derek R. Hall
Women and Tourism: New Directions
Women and Mountain Tourism: Redefining the Boundaries of Policy and Practice by Scott Walker, Georgia Valaoras, Dibya Gurung, and Pam Godde
Gender Relations in Tourism: Revisiting Patriarchy and Underdevelopment by Dallen J. Timothy

Editorial Reviews

Cross-fertilizing concerns about the role of tourism in economic development with those about the impact of development on women, researchers in tourism, anthropology, and geography explore perspectives on gender, tourism, and development. They consider women in the mature tourist destinations of the British Virgin Island, southeast Asia, and the South Pacific; and in the less developed tourist destinations of the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, and eastern Europe. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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