This qualitative interview study explores the intersecting barriers of gender, disability, and migrant identity in learning English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) within Greek tourism vocational training programs. Drawing on the experiences of 11 female migrant students with learning disabilities, the study investigates how institutional practices, including exclusive teaching methods and limited multilingual support, exacerbate feelings of exclusion and hinder English language learning, which is critical for employment in the highly feminized tourism sector. Participants reported challenges such as inaccessible teaching materials, low teacher expectations, and social marginalization in the classroom, which collectively undermine their educational and tourism career aspirations. Despite these obstacles, students employed diverse coping strategies such as peer support, translanguaging, and generative AI tools to overcome the overt and covert barriers they faced in Greek tourism vocational education. The findings suggest there is an urgent need for inclusive pedagogies and tailored support in vocational tourism education to address the complex needs of marginalized EFL learners. This study contributes to the growing body of research on equity and inclusion in tourism education and offers practical implications for policy and teaching practices in multilingual, multicultural vocational settings. Article visualizations:
Emmanouela V. Seiradakis (Tue,) studied this question.