Tourism is the world's third largest industry, employing high numbers of women in industrialized and developing countries. Gender, Work and Tourism examines the central role played by women in the tourism industry. It discusses the nature of their work and the ways in which tourism creates tensions between the attitude and conduct of tourists and the beliefs and behavior of local women.

By studying a range of tourist destinations across the world, it demonstrates how women have been excluded from some occupations and how their work in others is associated with ideologies of gender and social sexuality. Gender, Work and Tourism examines the segmentation of tourism work in Northern Cyprus, women's and men's work in Bali and the division of social and political power, gendered tourism work in Mexico and the Philippines, material and ideological changes in sex tourism in Southeast Asia and the exploitation of South-east Asian women in Japan.