Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
TOURISM, SPACE AND GENDER
Jacqueline Tivers
Why gender in tourism geographies?
The examination of the relationship between gender and tourism started not much more than
20 years ago (in contrast to the consideration of gender in
geography
which goes back to the
late 1970s, and of gender and
leisure
which goes back even further (Aitchison, 2003)). An early
collection of research papers was edited by Kinnaird and Hall in 1994, hoping to fi ll a gap in
the literature. This was followed by other edited collections, a number of papers in academic
journals and reviews of research in the fi eld (Aitchison, 2011; Pritchard and Morgan, 2005;
Sinclair, 1997; Swain, 1995; Swain and Hall, 2007; Swain and Momsen, 2002; Wall and
Norris, 2003), but I would assert that, even now, gender is very often
not
specifi cally consid-
ered in tourism geographies, or tourism studies more broadly.
Even where it is, a particular rarity in contemporary literature is any attempt to go beyond
empirical case studies and address the development of theory, although Aitchison's (2003)
work on the 'social/cultural nexus', which combines perspectives of standpoint and post-
structural feminism in considering tourism, is a notable exception here, while Freidus and
Romero-Daza (2009) have attempted to build on the concept of 'liminality' in addressing
issues of tourism, globalisation and sexual practices (see also the range of conceptual approaches
discussed by contributors to Ateljevic
et al.
(2007b), many of which are directly applicable to
studies of gender and tourism).
Both the societies that produce and those that sustain tourism are gendered, and tourism
activity cannot be separated from gender relations. Thus it is essential that issues relating to
gender are not overlooked in the onward rush to develop new areas of the leisure/tourism
industries or new research areas within tourism geographies. The current emphasis on eco-
tourism/wildlife tourism/sustainable tourism, for example, both in research and in the
tourism industry itself, has tended to focus attention on sustainability in terms of ecology
while ignoring the people involved (Schellhorn, 2010), and the emphasis on ethical tourism
has not necessarily produced a focus on the
gendered
impacts of such tourism. Similarly, most
new research on tourist motivation, tourist mobilities, performances and embodiment (see
also Larsen,
Chapter 8;
Edensor and Falconer,
Chapter 9;
Duncan,
Chapter 14
in this volume)
has not prioritised the dimension of gender to any extent. We know so little about the ways
in which tourist consumption is gendered.
