From empowerment to advocacy: A serial mediation model of women’s support for rural tourism development in Saty village, Kazakhstan

Rural tourism is often promoted as a means of advancing gender equality, yet little is known about how women’s empowerment translates into lasting behavioral support for tourism, particularly outside a few well-studied regions. Drawing on Empowerment Theory, Social Exchange Theory and the Capability Approach, this study tests a model in which women’s economic, social and political empowerment shape their satisfaction with tourism, which influences participation and long-term support for tourism development, both directly and through participation. A census survey covered 194 female residents of Saty village, Kazakhstan, recognized as a UN Tourism Best Tourism Village (initial response rate 87.8%; effective rate 81.5%). Structural equation modelling with 5,000 bias-corrected bootstrap resamples confirmed a six-factor measurement model and supported all ten hypothesized paths. Social empowerment was the strongest predictor of satisfaction (β = 0.332), followed by economic (β = 0.262) and political empowerment (β = 0.215). Satisfaction predicted participation (β = 0.377), and support was predicted by both participation (β = 0.243) and satisfaction (β = 0.286). Participation partially mediated the effect of satisfaction on support (indirect β = 0.091; total β = 0.378). Satisfaction also carried the effects of economic (β = 0.099), social (β = 0.125) and political empowerment (β = 0.081) to participation. The results show that satisfaction acts both as a direct driver of advocacy and as an indirect route to support. Social empowerment, understood as recognition, skill development and access to networks, emerges as the main lever for gender-responsive tourism policy in Central Asia.