Gender and Tourism in Timor-Leste
Tourism has the potential to be an important sector to drive economic growth, create jobs, and promote innovation for more sustainable development. Globally, the tourism industry employs more women than men, and women account for 60% of employees in Accommodation and Food Services in Timor-Leste.
This offers real potential for tourism investments to contribute to closing Timor-Leste’s gender gap in employment and to provide better opportunities for women entrepreneurs and women’s leadership in the industry.
Global Research on Women in Tourism
In 2010 and 2019, the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) conducted global studies on trends for women in tourism, in collaboration with UN Women, GIZ, the World Bank, and Amadeus. Key findings include:
- Women represent the majority of the tourism workforce
- Women are over-represented in service and clerical level roles
- Women hold an estimated 25% of decision-making positions
- Women make up a higher proportion of self-employed workers across sectors
- In tourism, the share of women entrepreneurs varies significantly across countries, reflecting factors that either enable or limit their participation
Women also perform significant amounts of unpaid work as part of family tourism businesses, a contribution that often goes unrecognised in formal economic data.
Opportunities Through Sustainable Tourism
Despite these structural barriers, sustainable tourism has been shown to provide significant opportunities for women’s advancement through:
- Formal and informal employment
- Enterprise development and self-employment
- Leadership and decision-making roles
Investing in gender-inclusive tourism policies in Timor-Leste can help unlock this potential and contribute to broader economic development goals.
Year: 2021