Housework stress in Tourism: A Critique of Gender Power Dynamics Replicated from Home to Travel Accommodations

This study explores housework-related stress across homes, peer-to-peer accommodations, and hotels, emphasizing the potential pitfalls of replicating home within tourism settings. Employing critical theory and feminist approaches, we conducted in-depth interviews with 10 Chinese tourist couples and utilized reflexive thematic analysis. Findings indicate that a homelike space (peer-to-peer accommodation) often perpetuates traditional associations between home, unpaid domestic labor, and gender roles. While prioritizing leisure can mitigate stress in peer-to-peer accommodations, women, especially mothers, still undertake more housework. In contrast, a living space unlike home (hotel) promotes more equitable stress alleviation for couples. Since the non-homelike space and the openness to housework industrialization leads to a shift from traditionally feminized tasks to a more gender-neutral stance, challenging established housework-related poweUr dynamics.