Can Nature-Based Tourism Empower Women and Foster Gender Equality?

This chapter discusses the theme of nature-based tourism for enhancing global sustainability using the lens of gender equality and women’s empowerment. The chapter endeavors to establish, through a number of case studies and statistical data from various pieces of research, that the dream of global sustainability cannot be achieved without elevating the status of women, at least equal to men, throughout the world; women’s role is crucial in ecotourism as well. First, the importance and scope of nature-based tourism, for attaining economic and environmental sustainability, are elaborated. Second, the interconnection between ecotourism and women’s empowerment is explored. This discussion is embedded with several experiences and examples from all around the world that reinforce the perspective of the chapter, which believes that without perceiving the sensitivity and importance of women’s empowerment and gender equality to the depth of its substantiality, the potential of nature-based tourism cannot be harvested; it would remain no more than a fictitious “pot of gold.” The fourth part of the chapter mentions some case studies where women got an opportunity to prove their depth and ability in protecting and enhancing natural beauty to promote green tourism. Finally, the discussion is summarized and concluded with some suggestions.