by Pratha Arora
For ET HR World Southeast Asia
Interview with Zahira Tahir. In light of how the pandemic has worsened the socio-economic situation of the female tourism workforce in the region, we invited Zahira Tahir, CEO & Founder of Universal Holidays Travel & Tourism, Malaysia to share her viewpoint on where the industry stands in terms of empowering its women workforce. The leader discusses the many challenges and issues that still affect women’s participation in tourism and deliberates upon some of the concrete measures that can be put in place to ensure greater gender equality across the region.
While women make up to 53% of the tourism workforce across the Asia-pacific region, they usually remain concentrated in lower-paid positions and are subjected to poor working conditions. The industry that is widely known for its glitz and glamour has also been a blind alley for a majority of its female workforce that is struggling to outwork the continued discrimination. As opposed to their male counterparts who are often seen at high-level and leadership positions, women across the industry are grappling with inadequate provisions and policies at work.
In light of how the pandemic has worsened the socio-economic situation of the female tourism workforce in the region, we invited Zahira Tahir, CEO & Founder of Universal Holidays Travel & Tourism, Malaysia to share her viewpoint on where the industry stands in terms of empowering its women workforce. The leader discusses the many challenges and issues that still affect women’s participation in tourism and deliberates upon some of the concrete measures that can be put in place to ensure greater gender equality across the region.
Zahira established Universal Holidays Travel & Tourism in the year 2010 after a long career 23 years in the travel industry, starting from an Airline. Zahira has led the company to be the Winner of the Malaysia Tourism Council Gold Award Inbound MICE for 3 consecutive years 2017, 2018, and 2019. In the year 2019, she was also conferred with Most Influential Women Leaders in Tourism Industry (By CMO India) & Asian Women Leaders, World Women Leadership Congress 10th Edition Singapore.
Here are a few great insights from the interview:
The past few years have taught us the value of empathetic, resilient, and collaborative leadership, all domains where women leaders have taken the baton further. Women leaders have navigated businesses across diverse industries and even outshone their male counterparts in executive decision-making. What has leadership under pressure meant to you?
Leadership under pressure for me is making tough decisions in tough times. You can make the right decisions at the right time but it is during the tough times and a crisis when the leadership actually takes a front seat. People have a perception that women leaders are very emotional but I believe that these emotions led to some of the best decisions during tough times. They have the ability to combine empathy and practicality while making a decision. I always believe that it is easy to make a business decision but isn’t that easy to make a business decision that creates a better team that is equipped enough to solve problems during challenging times. As women leaders, we need to make decisions that are not only best for the business but also for the teams.