Today, March 8, is International Women’s Day, a day for recognizing the crucial impact women make in all aspects of our lives.
The 2025 International Women’s Day theme is “Accelerate Action,” focusing on expediting gender parity across the globe—and why accelerating action is necessary.
According to the World Economic Forum, the current pace towards gender equality will see women achieving total equality by 2158, about five generations in the future.
In alignment with this theme, let’s take a look at the current state of women’s equality in the travel industry and how much farther we still have to go.
If you were surprised about the current pace of gender equality in the world, it should be noted that much of the data used to write this story comes from 2023 and earlier—the travel industry lacks the most recent data surrounding women in the workforce.
The World Travel & Tourism Council’s data finds that women account for 39.7 percent of total employment in the travel and tourism industry.
The industry employed 48 million women globally in 2023—though this number grows to 116.2 million when adding induced and indirect employment.
Some sectors see remarkable numbers of women: in 2023, the U.S. Census Bureau found that women owned 70 percent of the nation’s travel agencies. The hospitality sector is one of the biggest global employers of women, with 52 percent of all hospitality workers being women.
The women directly employed by the industry comprise 3.6 percent of women employed across the globe.
From 2010 to 2019, the number of women employed in the industry grew 24 percent, from 38.6 million to 47.8 million.
Yet the growth stopped in 2020 when the pandemic hurt women who work in the travel industry at a disproportionately higher rate than men or young people overall.
More women stayed home to care for children when they couldn’t physically go to school or, having been employed in more insecure roles, lost their jobs outright. A guest-facing employee at a hotel is just one of the numerous examples of these types of roles.
While before the pandemic, the industry was achieving higher rates of women in the workforce than the global average, now the global average is trending higher than the travel industry: 40.6 percent of the worldwide workforce is women, versus the 39.7 percent in the travel industry.
Of course, this is a small difference, but the one percent matters.
And it’s not all bad: some countries with developing travel and tourism industries are seeing the most significant gains for women.
According to WTTC’s Social Trends in Travel & Tourism Employment report, which uses data from 2023, Tanzania, Togo, Latvia and Ukraine are seeing women comprise at least 60 percent of all travel industry jobs, far higher than their share of their country’s workforce.
Typically, the global trend works opposite the success of these countries: many lower- and medium-income countries see smaller percentages of women in the travel and tourism workforce, mainly because their developing travel industry is seen as more professional and provides better opportunities than other industries, making these roles more attractive to more people, including men
A higher proportion of women currently work in the travel industry in higher-income countries, where these jobs often pay less than other industries.
“The female share of Travel & Tourism employment is on par with that of the wider economy, though it tends to be higher in high income countries, where Travel & Tourism jobs are often relatively lower paid, and lower in middle and lower-income countries, where such jobs represent formal sector, higher wage opportunities,” the WTTC Social Trends in Travel & Tourism Employment report explains.
“Importantly, efforts to increase the share of female employees in the sector should be paired with progress on other indicators such as parity in pay and job quality to achieve meaningful progress towards gender equality.”
UN Tourism data from 2019 reported that women in tourism jobs earn on average 14.7 percent less than men in their same roles.
The gender gap worsens when we look at positions higher up in the leadership pyramid: women accounted for only 7 percent of top CEO and chair spots in the leisure travel sector in 2023. WTTC data shows that 33 percent of senior management positions were held by women in 2023. Mid-level and lower employment roles saw the highest female employment.
Luckily, the numbers continue to trend upward, though it’s slow. Nonetheless, it’s clear to see that women play an impactful role in the travel industry across the globe, and here at home.Yet we have come to a unique place in our quest for understanding women’s equality within the travel industry: it isn’t simply the women who work for our hotels, operators, and travel corporations who make an impact.
It’s the travelers themselves.
It’s long been known that women are the decided majority when it comes to planning travel (women make 80 percent of all travel decisions). Now, women are the principal travelers themselves, taking to the skies and seas more often than men: Bank of America’s Global Research estimates that 64 percent of travelers globally are women.
Travel spending by women reached $125 billion last year. Due to this increase in traveling women, Bank of America reports a 230 percent increase in women-only tours and travel offerings in the past years. Around 85 percent of solo travelers are women, too.
A Global Rescue survey from last August drives home this point: 77 percent of women value and prioritize travel experiences over material possessions, as compared to 40 percent of men.
This has created a new trend we detailed in last year’s International Women’s Day piece: how women are leading the way for adventure travel and solo travel—and generally influencing the industry to provide more women-only options.
Women aged 20-70 comprise 75 percent of travelers engaging in adventure travel activities. Women are also leading the solo travel category, both older and younger.
Young adult operator Contiki found that in 2023, 63 percent of travelers heading on solo tours were women. And Flash Pack, the tour operator for travelers in their thirties and forties, found that 70 percent of its solo travelers were women.
Women thus play a critical role in maintaining and sustaining the travel industry as a whole. Their impact cannot be overstated, as they far exceed men in planning travel and outnumber them when it comes to certain travel styles.While women still have a long way to go before they’re equally represented in executive branches of the travel industry, women dominate as travelers themselves, and that’s something to be proud of.
The travel industry is an ever-changing sector that fosters the most significant changes based on travelers themselves: high levels of representation for women travelers means better experiences for them all and encourages the travel industry to hire more women to stay competitive.
So this International Women’s Day, think of your last trip. Consider the women you interacted with—shopkeepers who rely on tourism, hotel or cruise ship staff who make it their mission to care for you, chefs and cooks and bakers whose passion is to feed people, tour operators who work to spread knowledge and passion every tour they provide.
