December 16, 2017

Why Female Travel Is On The Rise

Why Female Travel Is On The Rise

The notion of men traveling more than women isn’t just antiquated, it’s untrue. Female solo travel and female travel as a whole have been on the rise in recent years. Women represent a huge purchasing power in the travel industry and are estimated to make 80 percent of all travel decisions. This means, regardless of the trip, who they go with, or who pays for the trip, women are the ones calling the shots for the trip. Additionally, there are 67 million participants in female travel and the potential of the women’s travel market surpasses $19 trillion yearly.
And women aren’t just taking and making decisions for any kind of trips, they are going on increasingly adventurous ones. Women are more and more participating in outdoor adventures such as biking, hiking, kayaking, canoeing, rock-climbing, parasailing, hang- gliding, and more. Pretty badass! People have previously held antiquated notions about these types of trips being for men, but more and more women are proving those naysayers wrong by participating in those trips by the thousands and exercising a really strong purchasing power. Many outdoor adventure companies are taking note of the trend and are focusing more of their services towards women, wanting to provide female travelers with the best in adventure travel. Women Traveling the World is one such company. Our adventurous tours all over the world include hiking, nature and other outdoor related activities that women are sure to love. We were built to give women the ultimate life-changing experiences in international travel and we are happy to reflect any trends that female travelers are exhibiting, including this recent trend for adventure based vacationing.
Cynthia Dunbar, who presides over outdoor adventure behemoth REI, corroborated the notion that female travelers are getting more and more adventurous: “since 2010, women traveling with us has grown by 60 percent, and we continue to see this figure grow steadily each year. Last year alone, 58 percent of all our guests were women.”
So we can all certainly agree that the trend is happening, but why exactly is it occurring? Well, many people cite the long awaited female empowerment and new wave of feminism that is rampant in the media and in overall popular culture these days. Women no longer feel they need to defer to the men in their lives for anything, least of all for travel plans. This empowerment has been exemplified in the media as well. Cheryl Strayed, author of wildly popular book turned movie, Wild, manifests the notion of female empowerment via adventurous outdoor experiences. Many people have replicated their own version of Wild, going places they never thought they would. It is this adventurous spirit that leads women to dare to travel, to dare to travel on their own and to dare to try adventurous, free-spirited tours such as those found at Women Traveling the World.