Tourism supporting women

Travel and tourism is a powerful growth tool that is assisting women in defying perceptions that this business is solely dominated by men, says Shishta Sharma, ADTOI-LEO, Punjab Haryana Chapter.

Janice Alyosius

In 2022, the globe will be more free and equitable than it has ever been, with tourism and industry employing twice as many women as other industries. According to consumer studies, women make 70 per cent of all travel purchasing decisions, and women account for nearly 72 per cent of travel brokers today. “There have been numerous recent examples of women in the tourism business gaining a stronger voice and playing a larger role. Thus, travel and tourism, in my opinion, is an agile and powerful growth instrument that is assisting women in fighting assumptions that only men can dominate this business,” said Shishta Sharma, ADTOI-LEO, Punjab Haryana Chapter, and MD, Shree trip planners.

Women empowerment programmes have been developed by ADTOI with the goal of verifying active engagement of women in the travel sector, ensuring new memberships for women entrepreneurs, and assisting them in developing ideas to work on safe tourism for women, she explained. “Organising interactive sessions and knowledge-extension sessions centred on the new opportunities accessible in the travel sector may actually increase the number of women entrepreneurs in the business,” she added.

ADTOI has appointed a team of LEOs across India to promote women in the travel industry and to honour its pledge to recognise women entrepreneurs in the industry. ADTOI has arranged events such as a “Brest cancer awareness camp” and “Full day occasions for the blind” to help women entrepreneurs in India. They hope to reach out to female students enrolled in tourism courses at colleges and universities and advise them on how to break into the sector. Despite the fact that the pandemic recovery period is yet unknown, they attempted to overcome the crisis last year by reorganising their business with certain short-term remedies.

Working on a pan-India basis to ensure equitable opportunity for women is one of the pioneering objectives of ADTOI’s women empowerment and CSR division.