World Tourism Day is celebrated each year on September 27th and provides a moment to reflect on how tourism fosters cultural exchange, economic growth, and heritage preservation. However, we often ignore the people who build and sustain the sector. In India, women are increasingly part of that backbone, though they still face significant hurdles.
Women in hospitality contribute to shaping guest experiences. Their presence enhances service quality, often through interpersonal skills, attention to detail, empathy, and emotional intelligence, aspects that are particularly valued in tourism and ancillary services. Women entrepreneurs often bring new, diverse, and locally rooted offerings such as food, crafts, homestays, which enrich the tourism experience and help keep heritage and local culture alive.
What Statistics Reveal
The tourism and hospitality sector is a major source of jobs in India. As the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) reports, there has been a 24 per cent growth in female employment in tourism between 2010–2019, from about 38.6 million to 47.8 million women globally, with hospitality being a major employer for women. Platforms like Airbnb show that women hosts in India earned over ₹200 crores in 2023. This indicates that women are not only participating as employees but also as entrepreneurs or owners in various accommodations and hospitality services. There is also rising visibility of women-led properties like hotels managed by women or completely by women in some operations. These showcase that leadership by women is possible and can be successful.
Women make up a sizeable share of the hospitality workforce, especially in roles like housekeeping, front office operations, food and beverage service. Still, their representation declines at higher management levels. On the demand side, women travellers are a growing segment. Data shows increasing proportions of women among inbound tourists to India. This has implications for what kind of services, safety, and infrastructure will be required.
Careers For Women In The Tourism And Hospitality Industry
Entry And Mid-level Roles: Reception, front office, housekeeping, food and beverage service, room service, guest relations, event support, and tours.
Specialised Skills: Culinary arts, pastry, mixology, spa and wellness, concierge services.
Management Roles: Housekeeping supervisors, front office managers, food and beverage managers, operations managers and general managers.
Entrepreneurship: Running homestays, guest houses, boutique hotels, food businesses, local tours, and crafts.
Support Roles: Marketing and communications, digital content, tour planning, travel agencies, government and NGO roles in tourism development.
Leadership And Policy: Executive leadership, board roles, or policy formulation in ministries, tourism boards, or corporations.
The Hurdles Women Face
Career advancement depends on training in both technical and soft skills, one’s network, the ability to deal with workplace demands, and the environment. While progress is being made, women in Indian tourism and hospitality face various structural, social, and workplace hurdles. These include:
Social Expectation Constraints
Hospitality requires irregular hours, night shifts, work during festivals or holidays. For many women, family or societal obligations, caregiving, and childcare etc make such schedules hard to sustain. This is because there is a social expectation that women will prioritise home and family over their careers.
Mobility And Safety Concerns
Jobs may require commuting at odd hours or to areas where safety is not assured. Lack of safe transport or accommodation can be discouraging. When employers don’t provide these for women staff, it adds to the barrier.
Gender Bias
Women often get pigeonholed into roles seen as ‘suitable’ such as housekeeping and front office, but less so in technical, leadership, back office, operations, and security. Bias in promotion and assumptions about commitment can hamper access to higher roles. Evidence also suggests that women in the tourism sector are paid less than their male peers for comparable work.
Lack Of Mentorship And Support
Fewer role models and less access to formal mentorship lead to gaps in knowledge about how to navigate professional growth. Sometimes workplace policies or practices are not supportive of women returning from career breaks. There is also a lack of policy enforcement for gender equity or sexual harassment.
Skill Gaps
In some areas, women may not have access to or awareness of training or skill‐development in relevant hospitality disciplines. Also, sometimes premium training is expensive, or requires relocation, which may not be socially or financially feasible.
What Are The Industry Initiatives?
There are several initiatives by the central government, state governments, NGOs, and private sector that try to address these challenges. Below are some that have been implemented, and suggestions on what more can be done.
1. The Tourism & Hospitality Skill Council (THSC) launched a women empowerment skilling project during its 10th anniversary in August 2024 to train and place 150 women in roles such as guest service associate, front office, food and beverage service, and housekeeping, with starting salaries between ₹15,000 and ₹25,000. All 150 were successfully placed. THSC plans to scale this up, training 300 more women in 2025.
2. IHCL has partnered with Tata STRIVE and the Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board to establish a hospitality skill centre in Gwalior aimed especially at local communities, including women.
3. WICCI National Hospitality and the Tourism Council, in collaboration with SAATHIYA, have a training initiative targeted at women and youth from marginalised backgrounds. WICCI also plays a role in networking, training, and advocating for women’s participation.
4. In Kerala, a special subsidised loan scheme has been launched under a ‘women-friendly tourism initiative’ by the State Tourism Department, Women’s Development Corporation (WDC) & Responsible Tourism Mission (RTM), to support women entrepreneurs.
5. Indian Women in Hospitality (IWH) is a platform founded in 2018 to support women in the hospitality industry through mentoring, knowledge sharing, and experience sharing.
6. Some hotel brands are explicitly aiming at gender targets. For example, IHCL has made public its goal to increase women’s representation in its workforce to 25 per cent this year.
7. IHCL also ran the ‘Second That!’ programme, a career transition programme for women who have taken career breaks of six months or more, offering pathways to re-enter the hospitality workforce.
8. All women-managed and operated hotels are being opened, such as The Taj Wellington Mews in Chennai and the Westin in Hyderabad.
Even with the initiatives, several gaps remain. Most programs cover small numbers of women. Scaling up is essential to reach many more, especially in semi-urban and rural India. Access to affordable training near home, with transport and safety, is critical. Also, it is not sufficient to hire women. Ensuring they are able to stay, move up, and lead is equally crucial. This needs supportive workplace policies such as flexible hours, maternity leave, reintegration after breaks, and childcare support. It is vital to ensure stronger adherence to policies against sexual harassment and ensuring POSH (Prevention of Sexual Harassment) norms are followed in all hospitality workplaces.
More schemes need to be introduced to support women entrepreneurs in tourism. For this, access to finance and markets is key, as well as ensuring outreach and support for women in remote or marginalised communities. Policies like promoting rural and sustainable tourism can help distribute growth beyond metros, bringing opportunities closer to home. Digital platforms for booking, homestays, and tourism experiences can allow women to participate entrepreneurially from places with limited infrastructure.
As we observe World Tourism Day, we must realise that actively involving women isn’t just about fairness. It’s about unlocking hidden potential, increasing productivity, and enriching the tourism industry.