There are many factors that affect participation in tourism, gender is just one of these. I think that the cultural values of the societies are one of the most important influential in tourism participation. And I think this can only be overcome with education in early ages. For example the perception of sustainability that develops at an early age can change the role of gender and also other factors. At the same time, incentives on social tourism will affect tourism participation positively and will discourage differences.

Many thanks dearest Özgür. Your response is apt.

Definitely the system of cultural values influences the participation in tourism- cultural tourism, event tourism etc. and because of that the first important factor for decreasing and discouraging the gender differences is the education in the country- from one side in the school but also in the family. In this meaning I agree for sure with the 1st answer- of Ozgur.

Thank you, Lina.

I don't think that a close reading of the growng world-wide literature on gender research on tourism would support your initial generalization and premise; namely that, "Most traditional festivals ahbor female gender participation either as spectators or active participants". Perhaps, this generalization might be informed by some aspects aspects of local participaition in the production of cultural events and cultural tourism development and markets particular to the local context in Nigeria.

For a broad and but succict overview of the topic of gender research in tourism, It refer you to the excellent description of the headword "Gender" in the recent 2nd Edition of the Encyclopiedia of Tourism (J. Jafari and Honggen Xiao (eds.), 2015) written by Pritchard and Morgan (2016, pp. 381-382). They also include an excellent short selection of key tourism research references on this subject.

In particular, they identify four main areas of sholarship that can be identified within the "gender aware framework" (Kinnard and Hall (1994): 1) gendered consumption, 2) gendered impact of tourism on host communities, 3) gendered employment and sexist work policies, and 4) the relationship between tourism and the global sex trade.

In my own research relating to statistical studies of employment in the tourism indiustries (see Meis, 2014 for ILO), I am most familiar with the third topic of a gendered view of employment related to tourism and also the possible links with sustainable tourism development.

The possibility of measuring such a link between the gender balance of employment in the tourism industries and sustainable tourism; something that is still a very open research question; since, to date, no consensus has yet emerged on the quantification of the concept of sustainable tourism development.

Indeed, the feasibility of measuring such a relationship is a small part of the general challenge that is currently being studied by a UNWTO experts group on the Development of a Statistical Framework for Measuring Sustainable Tourism, namely the identification and measurement of "green jobs" as part of the " social aspect" of the measurement of sustainable tourism development. In particular, the current thinking on the subject recommends exploring the feasibility of including the previously established ILO "Decent Work" conceptual measurement framework

and particularly the associated key social indicators identified within that framework, one of which is the gender balance of jobs and occupations within the tourism industries.

Professor Meis, thank you for your contribution.