Female Solo Travelers and Motivations Behind Travels

The fact you may not know is that 80% of travel decisions nowadays are made by women. No matter they are married, single or divorced, women are leading the travel trend and the whole industry has noticed that. Modern female travelers are brave, independent and eager for new thrilling experiences. They have their own say of where to go, how to get there, and whether to go solo.

Female solo travel is probably one of the biggest travel trends for 2017. As a proof, a simple search of ‘female solo travel’ in google shows the significant increase of women’s interests in having a solo travel over the past 5 years; at the beginning of 2017 you could find over 100,000,000 related searches.

The data shows the number of solo female traveller is also increasing. In 2014, 72% of American women took a solo adventure and the number was expected to continue to rise in the next few years, indicating more and more women were taking trips tailored to their needs. Moreover, Pinterest has released a figure that 350% increase is seen in terms of women pinning solo travel ideas since 2014. VBT Bicycling and Walking Vacations reported that 68 percent of their female travelers in 2016 chose to enjoy a trip without a companion, while Country Walkers says 87 percent of its female participants were single (that’s about 3.3 single women to every male traveler).

Women are more into solo travel as they have become more financially independent. This also encourages women travelers to pursue more travel, especially adventurous travel. Some of them tend to start a solo travel when they are going through a transitional period of their lives. By travelling independently, these women can accumulate experiences which enable them to cope with their life changes and to help them find the best version or the new version of themselves. When women travel together, they tend to be a more cohesive group than mixed groups (males and females together). Female travelers will support and encourage each other to try something that they have never done before.

However, many women are faced with personal barriers when thinking of or participating in solo travel. Influenced by parents’ words and media coverage of bad things happening to girl travelers, women are raised to be fearful from a young age, which sets themselves some personal barriers and fears for traveling alone. Women are trying to avoid being exposed in risks when traveling alone, they also actively overcome their fears deep inside by changing their behaviors to make the trip under control.

Tour operators are always looking into the new trends, so they simply can't ignore the female solo travel market. There is a massive portion of potential clients, especially when it comes to Millennials and Baby Boomers. Moreover, by ensuring safety for female solo travelers, both the travelers and tour providers will get benefits.