The Malta Tourism Authority recently embarked on a new EU-funded project – Retaining and Attracting People within Tourism through Diversity Management (ESF Operational Programme II Cohesion Policy 2007-2013).

Malta is still at the bottom of the EU 27 in terms of female activity

The aim of this project is to identify the issues affecting the employability of workers within the tourism industry by addressing retention and recruitment challenges.

This will be supported through a set of research studies, a training programme and an online interactive resource portal, focusing on the concept of diversity management and aimed at helping practitioners in their tourism management fields.

Women’s participation in the labour market is an indicator of a country’s economic development. In Malta, this has increased substantially over the past 10 years. However, the country is still at the bottom of the EU 27 in terms of female activity.

This provides both a challenge and an opportunity. For industries competing to attract valuable human resources, retaining women in the labour market provides a valuable chance.

Being one of the pillars of the Maltese economy, and with record figures, the tourism industry is constantly struggling to find sufficient HR to supply demands. Attracting inactive individuals, the majority of whom are women, can supply the industry’s HR needs.

Tourism can provide a number of entry points for currently inactive women. There is a potential for the creation of various employment and self-employment opportunities. However, a number of issues need to be addressed for this to happen in practice.

One can list the need to empower women, particularly those who have been inactive for a substantial period of time and would have lost the skills that make them employable, the need to provide working environments which foster work-life balance, addressing the issue of precarious work and making work pay.

Gender mainstreaming can be used as a strategy through which these issues can be addressed – acknowledging the needs and aspirations of men and women and transforming organisations into gender-inclusive workplaces.

Empowerment of members of the under-represented gender can happen through positive action initiatives, such as specific training and recruitment that consciously reach out to excluded or disadvantaged groups.

In terms of work-life balance, it is fair to state that women still constitute the majority of carers in our society. Thus, the creation of employment opportunities for carers should enable potential workers to combine their working and caring responsibilities. The provision of childcare centres or day centres for the elderly will also help in enabling such individuals to participate in the labour market.

Women employed in the tourism industry are concentrated in lower-paid jobs with fewer opportunities for career progression. This inequality can be overcome through pro-active gender-equality policies and training aimed at combating and overcoming gender stereotypes.

Making work pay is a concept that entails the creation of attractive jobs to encourage potential workers to tap into new opportunities rather than remain inactive.

When it comes to part-time work, lower hourly pay rates and fewer opportunities for progression often constitute a disincentive. Once again, it is women who constitute the majority of part-time workers.

It is therefore important to ensure that equality audits are carried out for management to identify inequalities and to take remedial action to effectively ‘make work pay’.

Recognition of gender issues within the tourism industry and the effort to take action need to be framed within the context of sustainable tourism.

Thus, while it is important to ensure that the tourism industry continues to grow, it is important to ensure that such growth is achieved in a manner that distributes wealth fairly and effectively for the benefit of society.

Tourism’s contribution to employment is estimated to be six to seven per cent of the overall number of jobs worldwide (UNWTO Tourism Highlights of 2010). One in 12 of the world’s workers are employed in the travel and tourism industry. In developing countries, where women have less access to education and often have greater household responsibilities, the low barriers to entry, flexible working hours and part-time work present potential opportunities for employment.

Tourism can also help women break the poverty cycle through formal and informal employment, entrepreneurship, training and community betterment. However, not all women benefit equally from tourism development.

Lack of education and resources may prevent the poorest women from benefitting. The overarching vision for the Global Report on Women in Tourism is to promote women’s empowerment and protect their rights through better tourism-related work. However, in most cases, the data only covers the hotel and restaurant sector, rather than the entire tourism industry.

The closest indicator of women in tourism education is Unesco’s data on women graduates and women teachers in tertiary-level services education. Notwithstanding the obvious data shortfalls, the resultant indicators are an important starting point for monitoring and reporting how tourism is improving the lives of women in the developing world.

The results reveal that although women are not as dominant in the hotel and restaurant sector as was thought, their pay in the sector appears closer to men’s than in other sectors.

There are more women employers in the hotel and restaurant sector than in other sectors; there are more opportunities for women to participate in informal and self-employed, home-based work in tourism than in other sectors; and there are more ministerial positions in tourism held by women than in other areas.

Not all the news is good. Women are not as well-represented professionally in the hotel and restaurant sector as men. They are still not being paid as much as men and are not receiving the same level of education and training in services as men are.

The majority of people employed in tourism worldwide are women, both in formal and informal jobs. Tourism offers women opportunities for income generation and entrepreneurship.

Promoting gender equality in tourism matters for two reasons: national governments and international organisations are committed to it through the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

Also, due to women’s concentration in the lower status and lower paid jobs in tourism, their potential to contribute fully is currently untapped.