Exploring Gender Disparities in Digital Skills: Evidence from the Serbian Tourism Sector

Abstract

The paper examines the digital skills of key stakeholders in the Serbian tourism industry (supply side) to identify potential gender gaps in digital proficiency. Employing a cross-sectional survey of 418 participants within the tourism industry, we utilized binomial logistic regression to parse out the effects of gender relative to other socio-demographic variables on digital skills. The descriptive results based on DigComp 2.0 methodology reveal notable gender differences, with women showing higher levels of information and communication skills but lagging men in problem-solving and content manipulation skills. However, the binomial logistic regression analysis indicates that gender does not significantly predict digital skill levels in the Serbian tourism sector. Instead, age and education are significant factors, with older individuals less likely to possess advanced digital skills and higher education levels correlating with greater digital proficiency. These findings underscore the critical role of education (formal and informal) in digital skills building, suggesting that comprehensive and targeted educational initiatives could effectively enhance digital skills and competencies across the sector.