Volume : III, Issue : X, October - 2013

Recent Trends in Tourism Industry and Women

Prof. G. Sandhya Rani

Abstract :

The World Tourism Organization defines, tourists as people who “travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for more than twenty – four hours and not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited”. The Tourism Society of England defines tourism as, “Tourism is the temporary, short term movement of people to destination outside the places where they normally live and work and their activities during the stay at each destination. It includes movements for all purposes”.In fact tourism is essentially an expression of natural human instinct for experience, education and entertainment. It is one of the fastest growing sectors of the global economy, which accounts for 11 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employ around 225 million people worldwide. Since tourism industry is one of the major employer of women, offers various job opportunities for independent income generating activities and at the same time it affects women’s lives in destination communities. The involvement of women as members of workforce in tourism industry worldwide develops women’s employment by providing various entry points. It creates paths towards the elimination of poverty among women and local communities in developing countries. Usually the restaurant, catering and hotel industry provides larger employment opportunities in tourism industry. But Gender disaggregated data for this was not available for all countries. As per the latest data available from ILO and UNDP the number of women and men working in tourism related professions are more comprehensive than for the average wage and working hours the availability of this information is still highly limited.In India in recent years the foreign exchange earnings from tourism have recorded a massive compound annual growth rate both in terms of (11.59%) dollar and (12.74%) money value. The average contribution of tourism industry to the country’s GDP was 5.3 percent. It is presently the third largest export industry in India – the first two being gem and jewellery and ready made garments and employs the largest human power in the country. India is expected to be the second fastest growing (8.8%) nation in the world, over the period 2005 – 20145, because it is one of the few countries in the world blessed with tremendous variety of tourist resources. The Govt. of India has also been implementing many schemes through ITDC and the Ministry of Tourism.With this backdrop in this paper an attempt has been made to discuss the recent trends in tourism sector and to highlight the role played by women in this sector with special reference to India

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Article: Download PDF   DOI : 10.36106/ijar  

Cite This Article:

Prof. G. Sandhya Rani / Recent Trends in Tourism Industry and Women / Indian Journal of Applied Research, Vol.3, Issue.10 October 2013

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