The future is female

Picture an intrepid traveller and what do you see? A beaten-up backpack? Dusty walking boots? A woman in her 60s? Yourself? No? Well, perhaps you should. The latest research suggests that around 78 per cent of solo trip bookings through UK tour operators are made by people aged 50 and over. Sixty-eight per cent of these solitary adventurers are women, up from 63 per cent in 2017.

Unsurprisingly, tour operators are responding to this growing tribe with an appetite – and, crucially, disposable income – for travel, especially as the world is opening up.

Take Golightly, a platform through which people can list and rent holiday properties. It sounds familiarly Airbnb-ish. But here’s the catch. Only verified members can list and book – and only women can be members. It launched with 500 members in 2020. Today, it has over 6,500 members across 85 countries.

This year, two female-focused travel organisations – Solo Female Travelers and SheFari – published the results of what they claim was “the largest-scale

global survey ever conducted of solo female travellers”. Their joint study found that “73 per cent of solo female travellers worry about their personal safety… a universal concern across geography and age groups”.

Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that group holidays designed explicitly and exclusively for women are also on the rise. Ethical holiday company Responsible Travel has seen “a sharp rise in demand for female-only – and femaleguided – holidays, both in the UK and globally”. In fact, its research suggests that demand for women-guided holidays has almost tripled in three years.

Wilderness Scotland, which organises visits to remote regions north of the border, has also noted a steep rise in bookings for its women-only trips. This year it is also launching a women-only retreat involving hiking, wild swimming and yoga as well as the opportunity to develop skills such as navigation.

Nor is this appetite limited to the UK. In March, Thomas Cook India created special women-only tours to domestic destinations such as Goa and Jaipur as well as further afield to Dubai. Even the flights were man-free zones. The company’s India representative Rajeev Kale said the country’s women travellers were “hungry to explore fresh new destinations and indulge in the unique and off-beat travel experiences”.

Around the world an increasing number of women agree with Nancy Sinatra that “these boots are made for walking” – and that’s just what they’ll do.

iHike spike: women-only trips are on the up