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Religious, contextual and media influence: determinants of the representation of female tour guides in travel agencies

Mohamed Mousa (Department of Management, WSB University, Dabrowa Gornicza, Poland)
Hala Abdelgaffar (The American University in Cairo, New Cairo, Egypt)
Islam Elbayoumi Salem (College of Economics and Business Administration, University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Salalah, Oman and Department of Hotel Management, Faculty of Tourism and Hotels, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt)
Ahmed Mohamed Elbaz (College of Economics and Business Administration, University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Salalah, Oman and Faculty of Tourism and Hotels, University of Sadat City, Sadat City, Egypt)
Walid Chaouali (Faculty of Law, Economics and Management of Jendouba, University of Jendouba, Jendouba, Tunisia and IDRAC Business School, Toulouse, France)

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management

ISSN: 0959-6119

Article publication date: 25 January 2023

Issue publication date: 2 August 2023

561

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the perceptions of female tour guides’ lower and top levels of management in travel agencies about how misunderstanding Islam and its culture may engender the poor representation of women in the tour guide profession.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative research method is used, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 full-time female tour guides working at several travel agencies in Egypt. Thematic analysis helped extract main ideas from the transcripts.

Findings

The representation of female tour guides in travel agencies is shaped by the following three determinants: religious (familial obligations and marital status), contextual (nature of tour guide activities, poor representation of women in senior tourism-related jobs, cronyism, sexual harassment and spread of foreign female tour guides) and media influence. Understanding these three factors may enable a more comprehensive representation of female tour guides.

Practical implications

Female tour guides could work closely with tourism policymakers in Egypt to shape the media messages about them. This might include elaborating on the main challenges faced by female tour guides. Social support from families and friends may allow female tour guides more freedom and empowerment.

Originality/value

This study contributes by filling a gap in tourism, human resources management and gender studies in which empirical studies on the representation of females in travel agencies have been limited so far.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The project is funded under the program of the Minister of Education and Science titled “Regional Initiative of Excellence” in 2019-2023, project number 018/RID/2018/19, the amount of funding PLN 10 788 423,16.

Citation

Mousa, M., Abdelgaffar, H., Salem, I.E., Elbaz, A.M. and Chaouali, W. (2023), "Religious, contextual and media influence: determinants of the representation of female tour guides in travel agencies", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 35 No. 9, pp. 3172-3192. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-05-2022-0650

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited

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