While solo travel has undeniably been on the rise for years, it’s evident that more women than ever are diving headfirst into solo ventures. The future of solo travel might well be female!

With the majority readership of large publications like Solo Traveler World being women, online searches for ‘solo women travel’ increasing by a staggering 230% in 2019, and popular social media platforms like Pinterest logging a 350% increase in pinned articles about female solo travel, it’s evident that more women than ever are travelling alone.

So with that in mind, we dive into how travel providers like you can ensure you’re meeting and exceeding the needs of women travelling solo - and why you should want to capture this growing audience of high-value customers!

Understand the Unique Characteristics of Solo Travel For Women

It’s important that you understand the challenges, sensitivities and experiences of female solo travel and this traveller type, so that you can better cater for this valuable segment.

Some factors that many women travelling solo consider when booking or planning a trip are:

• Whether the country or region is a major tourist destination.
• How good the tourism infrastructure is as a consequence.
• What the crime rate of the destination is.
• What online review sites, blogs, friends and family and social media groups say about the safety of the country or destination – many suggested that TV and online ads were not as trustworthy.
• How affordable the destination is for a solo trip – especially considering accommodation.
• The overall reputation of the country and how it treats women.

These are important factors to consider when promoting destinations to solo travellers, and even more so for women travelling alone; and are equally crucial for when you are building an idea of destinations that you would recommend from your portfolio in future consultations.

Make Dedicated Information Easily Accessible 

Create hubs on your website with relevant information about how your services can be tailored to female solo travel.

Whether this is FAQs, or dedicated pages in your service collections, make sure you list which hotels, tour operators and destinations are recommended for women travelling solo and why.

Don't forget to offer unique fee/payment information upfront - be clear on your fees, refund, and cancellation policies for solo travellers! Especially when it comes to unique fees like single supplements and cancellations if plans change.

This is critical when you consider that it takes the average consumer around 50 milliseconds (that’s 0.05 seconds!) while looking at a website to form an opinion not only about your brand but about whether they want what you’re offering.

One of the best ways to do this is a design technique called progressive disclosure - essentially, you’re streamlining important content into a user-friendly format, which improves navigation and allows the user to discover more information about your brand and offerings without being bombarded all at once. And consider that once they’re on your site, the average user spends around 5 seconds reading written content.

So, ensuring that your prospective audience understands, quickly, that you can offer the services or experiences they’re after is key.

Cater For The Luxury Solo Female Traveller

In the last several years, women taking solo trips within the luxury travel sector have increased significantly, and we think this is a prime opportunity to understand and accommodate this important audience to boost your success as a travel agency and ensure you’re as inclusive as possible for today’s traveller.

For example:

• Scott Dunn, a leading UK luxury tour operator, reported that they’d seen a dramatic uplift in solo bookings in the last three years, and that of those, 60% were women.
• Up Norway, a company that curates high-end excursions through Scandinavia, suggested that bookings from solo female travellers were up 40-50% compared to 2019.
• Bespoke tour operator Morocco by Design revealed that a full quarter of its bookings now came from women travelling alone.

Not only are women looking to explore the world alone more frequently, but many solo female travellers are looking to travel within the luxury sector, with bespoke trips curated specifically for their preferences. 

The industry is starting to take note of this increase in demand for luxury solo travel, so it’s important that you’re aware of the opportunities out there! 

From ‘Alonemoons’, offering solo travellers the deluxe experience a couple on their honeymoon might enjoy; women-only group travel; to tour operators and travel bookers offering amenities catering specifically to women travelling solo, there are many ways that the industry is providing opportunities when it comes to solo travel for women.

Consider how you can accommodate this type of traveller; what changes would have to be made to the partnerships you have with tour operators, or indeed to your tours themselves if you’re organising them for the end client?

Plus, when you work with a travel partner like Hotelbeds, you’re immediately boosting your visibility to this growing audience.

Tour operators, you’re opening up a whole new avenue of distribution for your experiences; while travel providers, you’re accessing a massive, ever-growing portfolio of over 23,000 experiences and 250,000 hotels in trending destinations worldwide! 

This allows you to capitalise on reaching and catering for the right audience, with the right resources you need. 

How Insights Can Help 

And so, keeping up with industry trends in your market is more important than ever, as more and more women seek out solo trips. You can do this easily with our search and recommendation tool, Insights.

Designed to offer market-specific insights, gathered from thousands of daily searches and booking data from our users, The Compass allows you to see what’s being booked in your market and when. 

Not only this, but you'll receive tailored growth opportunities depending on what is most likely to sell in your market, based on real-time data, booking history and seasonality, as well as your personal preferences thanks to Insights' intelligent algorithm.

Offer Women-Only Group Travel

Quite often, travelling solo can be daunting, and for many, the idea of venturing on a long-haul journey even to their dream destination is overwhelming no matter who is embarking on the journey. This is where group travel can be so valuable, especially to solo female travellers. 

While some women travelling solo won’t necessarily feel the need to travel in a women-only group, for some travellers this will significantly decrease any concerns or doubts around travelling alone amongst a group.

Many tour operators around the world have already begun introducing women-only tours to great success - for instance, the tour company Trafalgar introduced women-only tours in early 2022, and suggested that 61% of bookings came from women travelling alone.

So, there’s never a better time to make sure you’re filling your portfolio with tours and experiences offered by tour operators and travel providers catering to this valuable segment, in order to meet the needs of the female solo traveller, and therefore boost your bookings.

Our ever-growing portfolio is the perfect place to start, with tours and experiences uniquely designed for solo travellers and access to thousands of travel sellers worldwide!

Do Your Research

In ‘standard’ communication narratives, the solo female traveller is not usually the focus. Many decision-makers in travel, including travel agencies, cannot relate to the challenges of women travelling solo.

This presents a significant opportunity for savvy travel providers to get to know this audience better and offer products and destinations that cater for their demands and challenges.

By doing so, you’ll position yourselves as the ones to beat for this particular audience. Competitor and market research is an invaluable practice no matter the age, experience, or reputation of your travel agency, and even more so if you’re interdependent!

And considering that successful female-focused travel organisations like the Solo Female Travelers Club are already offering consultations for businesses to reevaluate their offerings in light of the growing demand from female travellers going it alone, it’s important that you’re viewing your offerings through the lens of a solo female traveller and consider where any opportunities for improvement might be.

Here are just a few ways you can do your research, and therefore identify any gaps in your business or offerings:

Read trusted insights

Our Client Resources page is packed full of regularly updated insights, inspired and influenced by global travel trends, and driven by our very own wealth of industry data gathered from thousands of bookings from travel providers all over the world. Check back regularly for insightful and inspiring content for travel agencies!

But as we mentioned before, Solo Traveler World and Solo Female Travelers Club are examples of valuable platforms with high social proof attached to them where insights, shared experiences and customer-centric recommendations are shared by women for women looking to travel solo. Keeping a close eye on platforms like this can provide interesting insights into how other travel providers are catering for the growing audience of solitary female travellers.

Organic competitor research

Identify your most direct competitors and scope out how their facilities compare to yours: what services are they offering that you aren’t? Have these competitors made specific accommodations that would attract this segment, and how might you incorporate these into your own business model in a way that makes you stand out? 

Utilise customer feedback

Getting insights from past or existing customers about their experiences with you is invaluable, and is one of the best ways that you can highlight any shortcomings with how your agency handles female solo travellers, and accommodates this type of traveller needs. Ensuring you’re GDPR compliant, of course! 

 
So there you have it! This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to catering for solo female travel, and it’s especially important that if you’re going to accommodate this type of traveller specifically, you really dedicate time to understanding the unique needs and preferences of women travelling alone.

But one of the best ways to start is by working with a travel partner dedicated to connecting the world of travel, no matter the audience or segment! At Hotelbeds, our global network and portfolio allow you to attract and keep your ideal audience, even in hard-to-reach markets.