Women ? s empowerment and tourism development: A cross-country study

Women?s empowerment has become a crucial component of sustainable tourism development in tourist destinations. Meanwhile, achieving gender equality and empowering women constitutes the fifth goal of the United Nations sustainable development agenda (UN-SDGs). The present study aims to investigate the influence of women?s empowerment on tourism development across three different Arab countries: Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman. With partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) employed to analyse the perceptions of 784 respondents across the three countries, the findings reveal that perceptions of women?s work in tourism and women?s entrepreneurship are significant predictors of women?s empowerment in the tourism sector. Furthermore, the results show significantly different effects of women?s empowerment on tourism development in the three countries. Among the three Arab countries included in the current study, the United Arab Emirates ranks first for the impact of women?s empowerment on tourism development, followed by Egypt and then Oman. The findings hold significant implications for women?s empowerment in Arab and Muslim countries. Limitations and directions for future research are also addressed.