The female tourist experience in Egypt as an Islamic destination

Abstract

In Islamic destinations female tourists face the added challenge of negotiating their way through male constructed local norms. This paper fills the gap in gender and tourism research with a focus on female tourists' experiences in Egypt as an Islamic destination, outlining the diverse ways in which gender shapes and influences their experiences. A qualitative approach was taken to explore women's coping strategies with the male sexualised gaze that they encountered during their holiday in Egypt, and sheds light on measures taken towards safeguarding themselves. Their experiences were highly influenced and often involuntarily altered by unwanted male attention and sexual harassment, as the women felt the need to fit into local female norms of behaviour in order to safeguard themselves.

Halal holidays: How is value perceived by Muslim tourists?

“…As indicated in the methodology section, the number of Muslim female respondents participated in the study were limited as most potential female respondents refused to take part in the study due to their busy schedules and social norms, which prevented them to take part in interviews without permission from their husbands. In their study, Brown and Osman () found that there is a significant difference in the female tourists' experiences, and therefore, it can be argued that the perceived values of female tourists may differ compared with male tourists. Therefore, conducting a similar study with more female Muslim participants using in‐depth interviews or focus groups would also be beneficial, to provide insights into the perceived values associated with halal holidays from a women's perspective.…”

A qualitative cognitive appraisal of tourist harassment

“…On the specific subject of aggressive harassment, emerging studies identify sexual harassment as a common but least‐reported tourist experience (Brown & Osman, ; Calafat et al, ). Seow and Brown () have likewise argued that sexualized male gaze is a major constraint for solo female travelers.…”

“…As regard gender‐based harassment, other authors contend that female tourists are usually the victims of sexual abuses with the commonest places being nightclubs and beaches (Brown & Osman, ; Calafat et al, ; de Albuquerque & McElroy, ). Pennington‐Gray and Kerstetter () also argued that female tourists have different expectations and attitudes to travel.…”

“…Pennington‐Gray and Kerstetter () also argued that female tourists have different expectations and attitudes to travel. In their study on female tourists' experiences in Egypt, Brown and Osman () found additional challenges of negotiating through male‐constructed local norms within visited destinations, typified by sexual harassment that constrained female tourists. Unwanted male attention and sexual harassment were common to these tourists.…”

“…Undeniably, the need for tourists to report and share lived experiences of harassment is both timely and relevant in an era of significant social discourse in the redress of harassment and abuse, such as the neologism “MeToo” or “Me Too” movement, which seeks to bring to the fore the pervasiveness of sexual and other forms of hostility. In addition, although literature suggests that tourist harassment may damage a destination's reputation (Brown & Osman, ; Kivela & Crotts, ; Kozak, ; Kozak et al, ; Pizam, Tarlow, & Bloom, ), the extent to which harassment impacts manifest is not readily provided. Following Lazarus' (, ) Cognitive Appraisal Theory (hereafter, CAT), we argue that the multiple cognitive responses from victims lived experiences provide a germane framework of the attributions and the effects of tourist harassment.…”