Women drive tourism forward

WOMEN continue to play a vital role in the global tourism industry, yet significant gender gaps remain in leadership, entrepreneurship and decision-making, according to UN Tourism. As part of its ongoing work to advance gender equality, UN Tourism highlights both the progress made and the challenges that still need to be addressed to ensure women can fully participate in and benefit from the tourism sector. Some of the key takeaways from research into women’s roles are:  Women make up 56% of the global tourism workforce  In Africa, women make up 69% of the tourism labour force  Women earn, on average, 15% less than men in the tourism sector  30% of tourism ministers in 2025 were female  Women make up 36% of aviation workers, but just 6% of pilots  96% of all tourism transport workers work in land passenger transport, only 3% of them are women  12% of water passenger transport workers are women  1 in 5 countries still don’t have legal protections against harassment at work.