A simultaneous analysis of gender and ethnicity provides a fuller understanding of
how tourism initiatives benefit marginalised groups in developing countries. In this
article, the gendered division of labour is analysed as a way to understand the
micro-politics of ethnic tourism production aiming at poverty reduction in Laos.
The aim is to demonstrate how constructions of gender and ethnicity impact on
women’s possibilities to benefit from community-based pro-poor tourism initiatives.
Socially constructed notions of gendered behaviour influence divisions of tourism
labour in specific spatialities, which we argue is crucial knowledge in the
implementation of tourism projects aiming at poverty reduction. The assumption
that ‘the poor’ constitute a homogenous group might hide an uneven distribution of
tourism benefits in local communities. By focusing on factors which marginalise
women, the article demonstrates inequalities between men and women in the
division of tourism work. A village in northern Laos is used as a case study to
examine aspects impacting on gendered divisions of labour in community-based
tourism in Laos. Two examples, the Akha people’s belief in and worship of spirits,
and provision of massage, are used to illuminate reasons behind gendered
imbalances in more detail.