Author Bios (50 Words for each Author)

B. Bynum Boley is an Assistant Professor of Natural Resources, Recreation and Tourism within the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of Georgia. His research interests largely focus on sustainable tourism with a specific interest in the unique natural and cultural resources of tourism destinations.

Emily Ayscue is a PhD student studying Natural Resources, Recreation and Tourism within the Warnell School of Forestry as well as the Integrative Conservation PhD program at the University of Georgia. Her current research interests focus on the sharing economy and sustainable tourism.

Naho Maruyama is an Assistant Professor in Regional and Tourism Policy at Takasaki City University of Economics, Japan. Her research interests include tourism and globalization, tourism and ethnic minorities, residents` perception to ethnic tourism. Her current research focuses on residents` attitudes towards tourism in Korean and Brazilian neighborhoods throughout Japan.

Kyle M. Woosnam is an Associate Professor in Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences at Texas A&M University, USA. His research interests concern social-cultural and economic impacts of tourism, resident-tourist interactions within tourist destinations, and sustainable tourism development and planning.

Abstract (150 Words)

While gender equality and empowerment are core components of sustainable tourism, literature has largely approached these concepts qualitatively. This study sought to empirically test the widely held notion that empowerment discrepancies exist between men and women in tourism development by examining differences in psychological, social, and political empowerment through the 12-item Resident Empowerment through Tourism Scale (RETS). The RETS was administered across five unique sample populations (three rural counties in Virginia, USA and two distinct cultural groups in Oizumi, Japan). Independent samples t-tests for each of the five samples revealed that women were more likely to perceive themselves empowered through tourism than men in all three U.S. samples. The two Japanese samples did not suggest any significant differences, which is of interest given Japan’s traditional patriarchal society.

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Testing for Gender Discrepancies Using the Resident Empowerment through Tourism Scale

While gender equality and empowerment are core components of sustainable tourism, literature has largely approached these concepts qualitatively. This study sought to empirically test the widely held notion that empowerment discrepancies exist between men and women in tourism development by examining differences in psychological, social, and political empowerment through the 12-item Resident Empowerment through Tourism Scale (RETS). The RETS was administered across five unique sample populations (three rural counties in Virginia, USA and two distinct cultural groups in Oizumi, Japan). Independent samples t-tests for each of the five samples revealed that women were more likely to perceive themselves empowered through tourism than men in all three U.S. samples. The two Japanese samples did not suggest any significant differences, which is of interest given Japan’s traditional patriarchal society.