Gender differences in tourism behaviour in the European Union

Abstract

Given its increasing role in today´s societal and economic realities, tourism is seen more and more as a discursive area and a successful channel for transmitting gender equality issues. The purpose of this article was to examine the differences regarding gender gaps in tourist behaviour between core-members and the latest accession states in the European Union We used the number of trips, overnight stays, and the values for travel expenditures from Eurostat database as indicators to study the participation of men and women in tourism for both leisure and professional purposes. The results indicated small or almost non-existent differences between the core-members of the European Union and the latest accession states regarding gender gaps in tourism; however, both groups manifested an under representation of women in professional or business tourism as well as smaller values of expenditures overall for women. The results seemed to indicate the existence of a “glass ceiling”, despite the overall progress made in the gender equality area.

Keywords

• tourist behaviour
• gender gap
• European Union
• “glass ceiling”