The influence of women’s empowerment on tourism involvement and sustainable tourism development: the moderating role of tourism cooperatives

ABSTRACT Influenced by patriarchy, male-centered culture, and family structure, gender inequality is widespread in rural areas of China. Based on the empowerment theory and the sustainable development theory, this study assessed the perceptions of women’s empowerment in rural tourism by a multi-dimensional scale of empowerment and explored the effect of women’s empowerment on tourism involvement and sustainable tourism development. Furthermore, tourism cooperatives were introduced into the conceptual model and investigated the moderating effect of tourism cooperatives on these relationships. Using the purposive sampling and snowball sampling approaches, 778 rural women living in Langde village and Huawu village participated in the survey, and then SPSS and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis methods were utilized for data processing. The value of this study lies in tourism cooperatives as an effective way of women’s empowerment in rural areas, which contribute to tourism involvement, thereby promoting sustainable tourism development.