Female empowerment in tourism in times of travel bans and afterwards

This paper looks at the relationship between tourism and gender. Gender research in tourism started around 1990. Themes are women as consumers, negative issues such as sexual exploitation and the opportunities for female empowerment in tourism. Although many empowerment programs focus on the stereotyped idea of women as nurturing and caregiving human beings, tourism might be an incubator for change. The worldwide travel ban due to the Covid-19 pandemic affects tourism in an unprecedented way. As women suffer more from crises than men do, the pandemic is a serious threat for all programmes and changes that have been achieved in the last years. Regarding the time after the pandemic back to usual should not be the strategy either regarding environmental or gender issues. As gender is closely linked to power, control and hierarchies, tourism research has to address these sociological themes as well.