Towards understanding the experiences and meaning of empowerment for Muslim women in tourism entrepreneurship

By Lubna Al Mazroei

PhD student

• Why tourism entrepreneurship?• Research on tourism entrepreneurship• Research on women in tourism entrepreneurship• Tourism entrepreneurship and women empowerment• Issues surrounding women empowerment through tourism

entrepreneurship• Women empowerment in tourism• The status of Muslim women• Embeddeness theory• Study aim and objectives• Research site: Oman• Female tourism entrepreneurs in Oman• Field work• Expected outcomes

Overview

• Difference between tourism entrepreneur and general entrepreneur:

1. Create touristic enterprises

2. Provide mostly intangible offerings

3. Have a higher service content

4. Face with higher impact of seasonality

5. Face with immobility challenge

6. Face with operations restrictions in the market

(Koh and Hatten, 2002)

Why Tourism Entrepreneurship?

• Adequate body of literature on tourism entrepreneurship.• For example, government support for tourism SMEs

(Wanhill, 2000), destination competitiveness (Jones and Haven-tang, 2005), sustainable tourism (Lordkipanidze, Brezet and Backman, 2005), etc.

• Limited research on tourism entrepreneurship (Thomas, 2004; Ateljevic and Li, 2009; Shaw and Williams, 2010; Thomas, Shaw and Page, 2011).

Research on tourism entrepreneurship

• Limited research on women in tourism entrepreneurship (Peeters and Ateljevic, 2009).

• Scant research on female tourism entrepreneurs in Arab/Muslim societies (Tucker, 2007; Alonso-Almedia, 2012).

Research on women in tourism entrepreneurship

• Few studies identified the potential role of tourism entrepreneurship to empower women (Swain, 1993; Wilkinson and Pratiwi, 1995; Gentry, 2007).

• Tourism a potential source for achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment (UNWTO, 2011).

• Question on whether or not tourism is indeed opening

doors for women (Manwa, 2008).

• Critical analysis of tourism entrepreneurship

opportunities for women and its potential to empower

women.

Tourism Entrepreneurship and women empowerment

• Large emphasis on the economic benefits of tourism entrepreneurship (Bras and Dahles, 1998; Kwaramba, et al, 2012).

• Tourism entrepreneurship opportunities linked to stereotypical women’s work (Harris, Mcintosh and Lewis, 2007; Garcia-Ramon, Canoves and Valdovinos, 1995; Manwa, 2008).

• Implications of social change (Van der Cammen, 1997; Tucker, 2007).

Issues surrounding women empowerment through tourism entrepreneurship

• Lack of women empowerment definitions in tourism.

• Only one available empowerment measurement

framework in the tourism discipline

(Scheyvens, 1999, 2000, 2002).

Women empowerment in tourism

• Ongoing debate on Islam influence on the status of Muslim women (Mernissi, 1985; Moghadam, 2003; Alvi, 2005).

• Blame on patriarchal structure and misinterpretations of Islam in Muslim societies (Abdalla, 1996; Nazir, 2005; Omair, 2008; Al Maaitah, Al Maaitah, Olaimat and Gharaeibeh, 2013).

The status of Muslim women

• “The roles of entrepreneurs within society and its formal institutions” (Roomi and Harrison, 2008, p. 228).

• Embedded environment can:– increase or limit individual ambitions to pursue their

entrepreneurship activities (Baughn, Chua and Neupert, 2006; Welter, 2011).

– Have a major influence on women’s empowerment (Cornwall and Anyiduho, 2011).

• Embeddedness theory used in tourism entrepreneurship studies (Bosworth and Farrell, 2011; Saxena and Ilbery, 2008).

Embeddedness theory

To explore the nature and experiences of Muslim women involved in tourism entrepreneurship with particular regards

to empowerment.

Study aim

• To present a lived experience of Muslim women’s involvement in tourism entrepreneurship.

• To explore the manifestation and meaning of empowerment for Muslim women in tourism entrepreneurship.

• To understand the benefits of tourism entrepreneurship for Muslim women.

• To understand the challenges and barriers that Muslim women may encounter due to cultural, gender or religious constraints.

• To consider the extent to which Muslim women can be empowered through tourism entrepreneurship through various dimensions of empowerment.

Study objectives

• Unique socio-economic, political and cultural arrangements in Oman.

• Evidence of barriers and challenges encountered by female entrepreneurs in general in Oman (McElwee and Al-Riyami, 2003; Dechant and Al Lamky, 2005; Al-Sadi, Belwal and Al-Badi, 2013).

• No research conducted on assessing tourism entrepreneurship opportunities for women in Oman.

• Tourism entrepreneurship is a fairly new activity in Oman.

Research site: Oman

• Collective entrepreneurs:– Sidab women sewing group– Zaree women

• Solo entrepreneurs– Handicrafts and souvenirs– Accommodation– Tours – Restaurants

Female tourism entrepreneurs in Oman

• Methods for collective entrepreneurs: – Participant observation (Riley and Love, 2000; Ribeiro

and Foemmel, 2012)

“A method in which an observer takes part in the daily activities, rituals, interactions, and events of the people being studied as one of the means of learning the explicit and tacit aspects of their culture” (DeWalt and DeWalt, 2011, p.1).

– Informal interviews (Jennings, 2005)

Field work (1)

– Photographs

– Field notes (Emerson, Fretz and Shaw, 2011)

• Methods for solo entrepreneurs:– Semi structured interviews (Finn, Elliott-White and

Walton, 2000; Jennings, 2005).

Field work (2)

• A conceptual framework on the nature and experiences of Muslim women in tourism entrepreneurship.

• Potential to develop a tourism entrepreneurship initiative for women in Oman.

• Broader implications on gender equality and women empowerment in tourism.

Expected outcomes

• Abdalla, I. A. 1996. Attitudes towards women in the Arabian Gulf region. Women in Management Review, 11, 29-39.

• Al Maaitah, R., Al Maaitah, H., Olaimat, H. and Gharaeibeh, M. 2013. Arab women and political development. Journal of International Women's Studies, 12, 7-26.

• Alonso-Almedia, M. D., 2012. Water and waste management in the Moroccan tourism industry: The case of three women entrepreneurs. Women Studies International Forum, 35, 343-353.

• Al-Sadi, R., Belwal, R. & Al-Badi, R. 2013. Woman Entrepreneurship in the Al-Batinah Region of Oman: An identification of the Barriers. Journal of International Women's Studies, 12, 58-75.

• Alvi, H. 2005. The human rights of women and social transformation in the Arab Middle East. Middle East Review of International Affairs, 9, 142-160.

• Ateljevic, J. and Li, L., 2009. Tourism entrepreneurship: Concepts and issues. In: J. Ateljevic and P. Stephen, eds. 2009 Tourism and Entrepreneurship: International Perspectives. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann, pp. 9-32.

• Baughn, C., Chua, B. and Neupert, K. 2006. The normative context for women's participation in entrepreneurship: A multicounty study. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 30, 687-708.

• Bras, K. and Dahles, H., 1998. Women entrepreneurs and beach tourism in Sanur, Bali: Gender, employment opportunities, and government policy. Pacific Tourism Review, 1, pp. 243-256

• Bosworth, G. and Farrell, H. 2011. Tourism entrepreneurs in Northumberland. Annals of Tourism Research, 38, 1474-1494.

References (1)

• Cornwall, A. and Anyidoho, N. A. 2010. Introduction: women's empowerment: contentions and contestations. Development, 53, 144-149.

• Dechant, K. and Lamky, A. 2005. Toward an understanding of Arab women entrepreneurs in Bahrain and Oman. Journal of Development Entrepreneurship, 10 (2), 123-140.

• DeWalt, K. and DeWalt, B. 2010. Participant observation: A guide for fieldworkers. 2nd edition. Lanham: Altmira Press.

• Emerson, R., Fretz, R. and Shaw, L. 2011. Writing ethnographic field notes. 2 nd edition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

• Finn, M., Elliott-White, M. and Walton, M. 2000. Tourism and leisure research methods: Data collection, analysis and interpretation. Harlow: Longman.

• Gentry, M. K., 2007. Belizean women and tourism work: opportunity or impediment? Annals of Tourism Research, 34(2), 477-496.

• Garcia-Ramon, M. D., Canoves, G. and Valdovinos, N., 1995. Farm tourism, gender and the environment in Spain. Annals of Tourism Research, 22(2), 267-282.

• Harris, C., McIntosh, A. and Lewis, K., 2007. The commercial home enterprise: Labour with love. Tourism Zagreb, 55 (4), 391-402.

• Jennings, G. R. 2005. Interviewing: A focus on qualitative techniques. In: Ritchie, B., Burns, P. & Palmer, C. (eds.) Tourism research methods: Integrating theory with practice. Oxfordshire: CABI publishing.

• Jones, E. and Haven-Tang, C. 2005. Tourism SMEs, service quality and destination competitiveness. Wallingford, CABI.

• Koh, K. and Hatten, T. 2002. The tourism entrepreneur: The overlooked player in tourism development studies. International journal of hospitality and tourism administration, 3 (1), 21-47.

References (2)

• Kwaramba, H., Lovett, J., Louw, L. and Chipumuro, J., 2012. Emotional confidence levels and success of tourism development for poverty reduction: The South African Kwam eMakana home-stay project. Tourism Management, 33, 885-894.

• Lordkipanidze, M., Brezet, H., and Backman, M. 2005. The entrepreneurship factor in sustainable tourism development. Journal of cleaner production, 13, 787-798.

• Manwa, H., 2008. Enhancing participation of women in tourism. In: G. Moscardo, eds. 2008. Building Community Capacity for Tourism Development. Oxfordshire: CAB International, pp. 116-122.

• McElwee, G. and Al-Riyami, R. 2003.Women entrepreneurs in Oman: some barriers to success. Career Development International, 8 (7), 339 – 346.

• Mernissi, F. 1985. Beyond the veil: Male-Female dynamics in modern Muslim society. London: Al Saqi Books.

• Moghadam, V. 2003. Modernizing women: Gender and social change in the Middle East, Colorado, Lynne Rienner Publishers.

• Nazir, S. 2005. Challenging inequality: Obstacles and opportunities towards women's rights in the Middle East and North Africa. In: S. Nazir and L. Tomppert (eds.) 2005. Women's rights in the Middle East and North Africa: Citizenship and justice. Oxford: Freedom House, pp.1-14.

• Omair, K. 2008. Women in management in the Arab context. Education, Business and Society: Contemporary Middle Eastern Issues, 1, 107-123.

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References (3)

• Ribeiro, N. and Foemmel, E. 2012. Participant observation. In: Dwyer, L., Gill, A. & Seetaram, N. (eds.) Handbook of research methods in tourism: Quantitative and qualitative approaches. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.

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• Roomi, M. A. and Harrison, P. 2008. Impact of women-only entrepreneurship training in Islamic society. In: I. Aaaltio, P. Kyro and E. Sundin (eds.) 2008. Women entrepreneurship and social capital: A dialogue and construction. Koge, Denmark: Copenhagen Business School Press, pp. 225-254.

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Thank you

Lubna.al-mazro-ei@strath.ac.uk

Telephone: +44 0 7503492797

+968 97884470