Journal of marketing, business and management (jmbm)

Keywords: employment of women, implementation of domestic tourism, stereotypes, tourist demand, perceptions of the population, socio-demographic characteristics
Introduction. For the promising development of tourism [1], local support [2] and the satisfaction of the host communities, it is important to understand the perceptions of the population about the impact of tourism [3]. Tourism development improves the economy, creates more natural and cultural attractions, and helps to protect these attractions [4]. In addition, tourism will lead to the growth of restaurants and accommodation services and will create more concerts, travel promotion programs and outdoor recreation opportunities.

Several studies have shown that the population’s perception of tourism explores the importance of socio-demographic characteristics, particularly gender and habitat, in socio-cultural, economic and environmental influences. This article helps to study the satisfaction of tourism with local management and to determine the impact of the impact of tourism on their satisfaction.

According to the reports of the World Bank, 61% of the world population accounts for the informal employment, 52% are paid for their labor, and 26% consist of the poor or very poor part of the humanity (ILO, 2019, pp.5-6). These figures indicate that human kind is poorly employed and warn us about the severe inequality[26].

The pandemics of coronavirus added more trouble to the struggling economies with high unemployment rates. Uzbekistan also took remedial measures to prevent the negative impact of the pandemics on the economy. For this reason, the President of Uzbekistan Sh.Mirziyoyev, signed the resolution PR-5969 “About the primary measures mitigating the negative impact of pandemics of coronavirus and the global crisis” on 19^th March 2020. According to this resolution,10 trillion Uzbek soumswere allocated to save jobs in various spheres of economy, in particular, tourism (The compilation of legislative documents of the Republic of Uzbekistan, 2020).

Recent research of the International Labor Office shows that the global crisis resulting from the Covid-19 will cause 305 million full-time job loss(ilo.org, 2020).In March 2020, about 22 million people applied for unemployment compensation in the USA. Prior to the pandemics, the people receiving unemployment compensation accounted for less than 2 million(kun.uz, 2020).

One of the perspective sectors of the world economy, tourism is considered as a substantial source of income for many countries of the world. The tourism industry produced 10.4% of the world’s GDP and provided 319 million jobs in 2018(WTTC, 2019). These figures show that how important tourism is for the world economy. [26]Not only it is important as a global business, but also it is considered as an important source of income for the vulnerable parts of society, such as the women, the invalid, and others.

Women comprise the largest part of the workforce of the tourism sphere. About 54% of the employed in tourism account for women worldwide(UNWTO, 2019). Female unemployment is one of the important issues in Uzbekistan. Even though a relatively great amount of females graduate higher educational institutions, only small fraction get employed in the first five years (Boltaboev M. et al, 2016). The majority get married and are involved in child-care or household work (Boltaboev M. et al, 2016). This passive labor participationmight be attributedto Islamic culture or patriarchal gender systems. The researchers of Muslim societies point out the so-called ‘belt of classic patriarchy’. This patriarchal belt stretches from North Africa, across the Middle East to South and East Asia (Caldwell C., 1982).So, Central Asia, namely, Uzbekistan is also part of this belt. The belt is characterized by male domination, early marriage, son preference, restrictive codes of behavior for women, and the association of family honor with female virtue (Library of Congress, 2005). We outline following five common patriarchal stereotypes in Uzbek society.

1 .If a daughter does not follow the rules of etiquette, it will damage the honor of the family.

2. A daughter shall not marry without the consent of her parents.

3. Women should traditionally work in “female” professions (school teacher, nurse, seamstress, medical doctor, etc.)

4. Women are expected to earn less than men and spend more time on family matters.

5. The women have less priority of inheritance than their male siblings.

The five patriarchal stereotypes in many ways restrict women from getting high-profile jobs, especially, in ‘male’ specific industries. In our view, these stereotypes are the root reason for gender inequality. Fortunately, there are “female” specific professions, where women feel free and have better chances for advancement in their career.[19,26] Tourism is also regarded as a “female” sphere, due to the great number of female guides andcatering staff working in tourism infrastructure.

So, in our view, tourism, in particular, internal tourism has a great effect on female employment rate. To verify this assumption, we implemented OLS (ordinary least squares) analysis.