Tourism and gendered hosts and guests

Abstract

Purpose: This conceptual paper aims to contribute to the extant tourism and gender literature by highlighting a tendency towards the conceptualisation of gendered research participants as host or guest depending upon their nationality. Design/methodology/approach: The argument presented here is based on a critical review of literature concerned with gender and tourism, focusing specifically on studies that include participant voices since 2010. Findings: The paper identifies a tendency in research on gender and tourism to conceptualise women and men from the West as guests and women and men from the rest as hosts. It is argued that working within this dominant framework can equate to an overlooking of many issues facing women and men globally; in doing so, it paves the way for future research and opens dialogue for important conversations on gender and feminist research in the academic field of tourism. Research limitations/implications: This paper aims to highlight a limitation in theorising rather than provide an exhaustive or systematic review of the literature. Future research trajectories are outlined. Originality/value: The paper’s originality lies in the problematisation of commonly accepted terminology when conceptualising research participants in tourism and providing suggestions for future research.