Women’s Involvement in The Tourism Industry: An SDG Heatmap Analysis of ASEAN Member States

“Women’s participation and equal power are fundamental to progress for everyone,” says Anne Hathaway, UN Goodwill Ambassador.

This statement explicitly highlighted the importance of women’s involvement as part of the human capital workforce, particularly in tourism. Based on the report from Travel and Tourism Development Index (TTDI) 2024, tourism was a significant driver of economic growth and development, with tourism and travel (T&T) accounting for a tenth of global GDP and employment.

Like every sector in the world that experienced significant disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this report highlights that the tourism sector is gradually recovering, as evidenced by the numbers slowly going back to what was observed several years before the onset of the pandemic. The TTDI 2024 report highlights that despite the T&T sectors slowly recovering from  COVID-19, the uncertain future challenges ahead could affect the industry’s growth. 

A few years after the pandemic ended, in 2022, looking at the regional share of tourist arrivals, Europe leads with 67 per cent, followed by the Americas with 18 per cent, while the Middle East and the Asia Pacific regions are in a tie for the third position with five (5) per cent each. Asia undoubtedly gains advantages from global tourism, particularly as its middle class continues to rise alongside an emerging consumer power that facilitates the creation of diverse employment opportunities. In 2020, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) recorded a total of 26.2 million visitors, wherein Malaysia secured the second position with 1.9 million, following Thailand with 1.6 million, and the Philippines coming in at seventh position with 349 thousand. In 2022, the ASEAN nations recorded a total of 43.6 million visitors, a 66 per cent increase compared to 2020. This increase in the number of visitors demonstrates how the tourism industry is recovering after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite these figures, the engagement of women in tourism still prompts immediate attention, particularly initiatives to empower them. Several reasons prompted the authors to write this short article. First, women have made significant contributions to the economy through unpaid labour by engaging in activities such as domestic responsibilities and child-rearing, which, in many cases, are often unseen and not accounted for in national income. Second, although nations like Singapore and Thailand excel in the technological domain and the agriculture sector, respectively, the economic participation of women predominantly encompasses lower-skilled roles that are associated with lower pay. Thirdly, women’s skills are dominant in the accommodation sector. However, they occupy subordinate roles relative to their male counterparts, such as homestay services, food and beverage services, making souvenirs, opening stalls, hawking trade, cooking, cleaning public places, and working in the hospitality sector. To address the gaps, this short writing aims to integrate the five out of 17 SDG pillars as a framework to examine women’s empowerment in tourism across ASEAN member states.

SDG-Based Analytical Framework

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) serve as a road map for the global community to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. A significant number of countries worldwide endorse the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a way to show their support for this initiative. The selection of this heatmap serves as a tool of analysis for this short article, as it provides a general assessment of the state of ASEAN members. To accomplish the articles’ objectives, the authors integrated this heatmap with the thematic goals of gender equality and women’s empowerment in tourism, encompassing SDGs 1, 4, 5, 8, and 16, as highlighted by UNWTO. Explanation of the selected five SDGs (1, 4, 5, 8, and 16), alongside their interconnection to women’s empowerment, is detailed in Table 1:

Table 1: Thematic Goals in Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in Tourism (source).

Among the 17 SDGs, five (5) SDGs were emphasized explicitly in this article, as the remaining twelve (12) SDGs have little relevance to women’s empowerment. It is essential to acknowledge that this examination may not precisely reflect reality and should not be taken at face value, as the heatmap was published by Cambridge University Press by Sachs et al. in 2020, taken from his seminal work entitled “The Sustainable Development Goals and COVID-19.” Given that several years have already passed, there might be some changes that have not yet been recorded and updated by the relevant authorities, such as the ASEAN Sustainable Development Goals Indicators Baseline Report, wherein the relevant authorities last produced the report in 2020. Nonetheless, this represents the authors’ attempt to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of women’s participation in tourism framed in the context of SDG pillars within the ASEAN context. It is important to note that Timor-Leste is not yet included in this analysis, as this report was published back in 2020.

Figure 1: Heatmap of Individual SDGs by ASEAN Member States (source)

The heatmap in Figure 1 represents a specific SDG as it pertains to an ASEAN nation and its relationship with equality and women’s empowerment within the tourism sector. The heatmap is also based on the average income for every ASEAN nation in terms of human development and economics. For instance, countries with lower average income perform poorly in SDG goals related to economic and human development, while doing better in environmental goals, and vice versa. For example, the countries that are considered advanced in economic development, like Singapore and Malaysia. Green signifies the achievements of goals (have been tackled), yellow denotes the ongoing challenges (a persisting issue but not excessively serious), and orange indicates a significant challenge (the issue is sufficiently severe and warrants more attention). Lastly, purple represents a critical challenge (the problem is severe enough to necessitate further intervention).

From the same heatmap, looking at SDG1 and SDG5, women’s involvement in tourism activity will lead to economic empowerment, indicating that all ASEAN nations encountered either substantial challenges or significant challenges in achieving this goal (for SDG5). Only Singapore and Vietnam are countries that successfully provide education opportunities for SDG4: tourism education and training promote gender equality and women empowerment in the sector. This is due to several reasons, such as early integration of gender equality into education, a strong link between education, TVET (including tourism), and the labor market, which eventually resulted in tourism acting as a strategic driver for women’s empowerment, and lastly,  data-driven policymaking. In contrast, other ASEAN countries made positive efforts to achieve these goals. This is due to structural constraints such as limited access to education and training for women, the gender norms that favour males over females restricting career progression among women, which leads to women being concentrated in informal, low-paid tourism jobs, among others. The process of integration and globalization provides numerous opportunities for women to work. However, with the significant economic growth and improved education for women, women’s labour-force participation has persistently been low among ASEAN members (except in some countries such as Singapore and Thailand). Meanwhile, it is noteworthy that only Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand have achieved the objectives outlined in SDG1. The exact circumstances are observable in SDG8, where the tourism sector offers equitable employment opportunities for women, a pursuit that remains a priority for all ASEAN member states.

Meanwhile, SDG16 outlines that women should have leadership roles in the tourism sector and should be well-represented in decision-making processes. It is a sad reality that all ASEAN nations face this as a major, significant, and ongoing challenge. The World Bank Group’s 2019 report highlights that women are more likely to be in informal employment, with less job security, lower wages, and limited social protection. Meanwhile, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report, women make up to 54 percent of the global tourism workforce, but hold less than 25 percent of senior leadership roles (OECD, 2025). As indicated in the ASEAN Gender Outlook report, women belonging to ethnic minorities who are residing in rural areas or are experiencing poverty face significant discrimination, which has resulted in the creation of additional barriers.

Although tourism contributes to financial revenue and economic advantages for the nation, it simultaneously creates gender disparities.

The process of integration and globalization provides numerous opportunities for women to work. However, with the significant economic growth and improved education for women, women’s labour-force participation has persistently been low among ASEAN members (except in some countries such as Singapore and Thailand). Despite their participation in the workforce, women are still confined to low-wage positions compared to men. It is paramount that women are afforded equal opportunities, enabling them to liberate themselves from the constraints imposed upon them. Failure to provide an equal playing field for women to participate in the leadership role in tourism will further exacerbate gender discrimination. 

The Malay version of this short article was published at https://jendeladbp.my/ujana/dewan-masyarakat-mei-2023/, entitled: Memperkasakan Wanita dalam Industri Pelancongan Berdasarkan SDGs, English Translation: Empowering Women in the Tourism Industry based on SDGs