Opportunities and challenges of digital competencies for women tourism entrepreneurs in Latin America: a gendered perspective

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Khoo, Catheryn
Yang, Elaine Chiao Ling
Tan, Rosalie Ying Yang
Alonso-Vazquez, Marisol
Ricaurte-Quijano, Carla
Pecot, Mathias
Barahona-Canales, Domenica
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2023
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Abstract

While increasingly more economic and social exchanges are taking place in the digital environment globally, women entrepreneurs’ access to, and adoption of, digital platforms cannot be assumed to happen naturally due to gender and social inequalities that are being replicated in the online environment. This study investigates the opportunities and challenges of entrepreneurial digital competencies for women tourism entrepreneurs (WTEs) in Latin America from a gendered perspective. A total of 33 interviews were conducted with women tourism entrepreneurs in Mexico and Ecuador. The findings reveal that women tourism entrepreneurs can and have been empowered through utilising digital technologies and digital platforms, but they face significant challenges and barriers, including the lack of digital competencies; lack of access to digital devices, infrastructure, and training; reliance on supporting staff and family members; and concerns around safety, security and work-life balance. This study contributes to existing entrepreneurship literature by identifying the social and structural inequalities that impede growth in women’s tourism business. The findings also highlight how women are disadvantaged in gaining digital competencies because of the macro gender digital divide and micro-level factors. Implications for women’s entrepreneurship policy development in relation to digital competencies are provided.

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Journal of Sustainable Tourism

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© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.

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This publication has been entered in Griffith Research Online as an advanced online version.

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Entrepreneurship

Tourism

Human geography

Science & Technology

Social Sciences

Green & Sustainable Science & Technology

Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism

Science & Technology - Other Topics

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Khoo, C; Yang, ECL; Tan, RYY; Alonso-Vazquez, M; Ricaurte-Quijano, C; Pecot, M; Barahona-Canales, D, Opportunities and challenges of digital competencies for women tourism entrepreneurs in Latin America: a gendered perspective, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 2023

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