Purpose

This study aims to investigate the perceptions of female tour guides’ lower and top levels of management in travel agencies about how misunderstanding Islam and its culture may engender the poor representation of women in the tour guide profession.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative research method is used, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 full-time female tour guides working at several travel agencies in Egypt. Thematic analysis helped extract main ideas from the transcripts.

Findings

The representation of female tour guides in travel agencies is shaped by the following three determinants: religious (familial obligations and marital status), contextual (nature of tour guide activities, poor representation of women in senior tourism-related jobs, cronyism, sexual harassment and spread of foreign female tour guides) and media influence. Understanding these three factors may enable a more comprehensive representation of female tour guides.

Practical implications

Female tour guides could work closely with tourism policymakers in Egypt to shape the media messages about them. This might include elaborating on the main challenges faced by female tour guides. Social support from families and friends may allow female tour guides more freedom and empowerment.

Originality/value

This study contributes by filling a gap in tourism, human resources management and gender studies in which empirical studies on the representation of females in travel agencies have been limited so far.

中文翻译：

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宗教、背景和媒体影响：旅行社中女导游代表性的决定因素

目的

本研究旨在调查旅行社中女导游的低层和高层管理人员对伊斯兰教及其文化的误解如何导致导游行业中女性代表性不足的看法。

设计/方法论/途径

采用定性研究方法，对埃及多家旅行社的32名全职女导游进行半结构化访谈。主题分析有助于从文字记录中提取主要思想。

发现

旅行社中女导游的比例由以下三个决定因素决定：宗教（家庭义务和婚姻状况）、背景（导游活动的性质、高级旅游相关工作中女性比例较低、任人唯亲、性骚扰和外国女导游的传播）和媒体影响力。了解这三个因素可能有助于更全面地反映女性导游的情况。

实际影响

女导游可以与埃及的旅游政策制定者密切合作，塑造有关她们的媒体信息。这可能包括阐述女导游面临的主要挑战。来自家人和朋友的社会支持可能会给女导游更多的自由和权力。

原创性/价值

这项研究填补了旅游业、人力资源管理和性别研究方面的空白，迄今为止，对旅行社中女性代表性的实证研究还很有限。