results were found out in ILO (2017) report which concluded that Omani females are largely not encouraged to work in hotels due to the job image, working hours, job itself, alcohol and haram food. the behavior and dress of tourists, sexual permissiveness, gambling and consumption of pork and alcohol are seen to be in appropriate and offensive (Mazroei, 2017, as cited in Henderson, 2003 and Ritter, 1975).
Working in the service role is undesirable and reflects badly on person’s public image and on their family’s image. The religious implications of especially women working or being around unknown men, alcohol and haram food as well as activities also hinder the interest of working in hotels (GRA, 2017).
5.6.1 Recommendations for 4th Network Event
The group suggested to launch the OTC Lady Leaders in Tourism Network as a CSR program in the next network event. The event had been scheduled to coincide with the annual Omani Women’s Day, on the 17th of October 2018. Out of the suggested awareness activities that the focus group discussion results showed, the group recommended to include awareness walk, social media campaign as well as releasing the code of conduct for employing Omani women in tourism, as activities in the event of 2018. The social media campaign was suggested to include success stories of the women in tourism now. The awareness efforts that were targeted towards the OTC students and their families were discussed briefly with new suggestions from the group being inviting the parents to the orientation days at OTC, in addition to the already established procedure of inviting industry representation. The group also suggested that the industry presents itself already during the registration days. To take further the idea from the focus group discussion for inviting parents to visit the industry during internships, the group suggested that the parents could be invited to join the orientation day in the company together with the students.
5.6.2 Recommendations for Network as CSR Program
The group supported the view of the researcher in recommending establishing the network as a CSR program so that it can best assist in reducing the threshold for Omani female tourism students, and other Omani women to join the industry. As the network aims are in line with the general CSR aims and objectives current initiatives, especially of the international chain hotels, adding the network as CSR program in the same basket would be natural.
The group stressed the relevance of not forgetting to include men in the network, as in their view the support of men is important in Omani society. The group recommended to ensure that the men would have a role to play in the network.
To be able to successfully launch the network as CSR program, the group advised that it would be best to obtain the official support from the Ministry of Tourism as well as from the Ministry of Manpower. The group agreed both to work together for a proposal and present it through their personal contacts to the undersecretaries of the ministries, if needed.
5.6.3 Discussion on Increasing Awareness
The awareness efforts that were targeted towards the OTC students and their families were discussed briefly with new suggestions from the group being inviting the parents to the orientation days at OTC, in addition to the already established procedure of inviting industry representation. The group also suggested that the industry presents itself already during the registration days. To take further the idea from the focus group discussion for inviting parents to visit the industry during internships, the group suggested that the parents could be invited to join the orientation day in the company.
The group supported the view of the focus groups of the need for more awareness for the students about the different career paths available to them, including entrepreneurship and agreed that it would be beneficial to involve the SME funds in this respect. The group also mentioned that one way of getting valuable work experience and exploring the different career options would be engaging the students with part time work in the industry.
For the long-term effect, the group agreed with the focus groups that the network should aim to influence the parents and the society through the primary schools. The idea from the focus groups that the industry should adopt a school per company was considered interesting and the group suggested that the companies would work with a school which is geographically close to their operation. The advisory group also supported the idea of awareness walk in the interior of the country by reiterating that the perception in general about tourism there is worse than in Muscat, let alone the perception of females working in the tourism industry. Instead of planning for one walk, the group suggested having several simultaneous walks, for the maximum impact, including media impact.
Regarding the awareness campaign, the group pointed out that there has been general discussion about the need for a tourism awareness campaign, but that there has not been joint action between the different stakeholders. They commented that since Omanis use social media a lot, using social media for the campaign would be an effective way of spreading awareness. The language of the campaign was suggested to be both in English and Arabic.
According to the group’s view, the industry plays an important role in employing women and retaining them in their companies. Their experience was that the society in general doesn’t know the Omani Labor Law related to the rights of the female employees, such as no late evening or night shifts, maternity leave and breastfeeding breaks. In addition to that the companies have their own best practices, such as employing waiters for breakfast shifts. The group suggested that the network could establish a code of conduct for employing Omani women in tourism, to be including the labor law and best practices.
Their suggestion is in line with the research findings by Al Hasimi (2017) about Women in Employment in Oman, as she found out the women did not know their rights in the Omani labor law.
Image 9. OTC Lady Leaders in Tourism Network as a CRS: Proposed Activities for 2018 (Raisanen, 2018)