Responding to our latest poll exploring the dynamics of female leadership and ownership in tourism, a plurality of Tourism Update readers (47%) believe that women are well represented within leadership and ownership roles in the sector.
While the result is encouraging, it is also identical to the same poll we conducted last year during South Africas Womens Month, potentially illustrating some stagnation in the progress of appointing women in these key positions.
A significant proportion of readers (35%) believe women are under-represented within these roles compared with 38% of poll respondents last year. The remaining 18% said they were unsure on the issue.
Data released by the Department of Tourism in 2022 indicated that, despite making up nearly 70% of the tourism workforce, women held less than 40% of managerial positions in South Africa. In general management roles, this dropped to 20% and to 5-8% of board positions.
