Gender Perspectives in Tourism Studies: A Comparative Bibliometric Analysis in the MENA Region

Abstract

Recently tourism appears to be an effective economic tool to enhance gender equality and women's empowerment. This study analyzed the gendered-oriented articles concerning the tourism sector in the MENA region. This study focused on the articles that used structured methods such as interviews, questionnaires, surveys, and observations. 203 articles were extracted from the Scopus and Web of Science databases and analyzed through six bibliometric analysis units: scientific production evolution, documents, authors, sources, countries and institutions, and keywords. The main results of this study can be summarized in two pivotal points: (i) the scientific production of articles concerning gender in the tourism sector in the MENA region is still inadequate and does not correspond to the current international and regional interest in achieving gender equality; (ii) among all the MENA region countries, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and Oman were the most countries that have paid attention to gender in the the tourism articles.