Insights for women travellers
ZAFIGOX, aimed at empowering women through informed travel, will be held from Nov 9 to 11 at The Gardens Hotel, Mid Valley City, Kuala Lumpur.
Launched last year in Penang, ZafigoX is the first event in Asia dedicated to women empowerment and travel, where women come together to discover, learn, meet and be inspired.
Travel can be daunting for a woman and hold many risks, but through careful planning and education, it can be safe, easy and, more importantly, a catalyst for personal growth. ZafigoX aspires to help women discover what they are capable of through their journeys; and to, ultimately, inspire themselves and everyone around them.
ZafigoX founder Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir says the event is to create a space where women travellers can share their stories, and to help guide and encourage other women to travel with a renewed sense of confidence.
“Travel is a very gendered domain. Female travellers have very different concerns as compared to their male counterparts. For example, if you are on a business trip to Pakistan, what should one wear? Is a pantsuit considered offensive on women? Should I shake hands with male colleagues, or greet them from a distance?
“With so much riding on our minds before we even begin our journey, and with little or sometimes no access to the correct information, most women often feel restricted to cross thresholds into unknown territories,” says Marina.
TRAVEL EXPERIENCES
For this year’s event, there are speakers who will share their travel experiences. They include Marin Minamiya, a Japanese university student who has climbed all of the world’s highest peaks and trekked the North and South Poles to complete The Explorer’s Grand Slam; Xyza Cruz Bacani, a Filipina domestic worker turned internationally-acclaimed photojournalist and Claire McFarlane, a rape survivor who now runs marathons on beaches around the world to raise awareness on sexual violence.
On Nov 9, the ZafigoTravel Industry panel session will be held. Topics to be discussed include “What Do Women Really Want When They Travel?”. It will also have the “Selling Travel To Women: A Masterclass”.
Designed for industry professionals, participants of the Masterclass will, through a series of interactive activities and break out sessions, acquire a deeper understanding of marketing to female travellers.
In addition, participants can attend workshops and panel discussions that aim at helping women prepare to travel independently and safely. Another element of the event is the marketplace which highlights and supports women-run enterprises and local female artisans.
For more details about the event, visit http://zafigox.com/