They set out on their journey alone. Nothing stops them from fulfilling their dream of travelling around the world. They’re looking for adventure and freedom, to discover other cultures first hand, and repeat literary trips. They’re escaping from tedious everyday life. These are not backpackers. They’re women between 45 and 60 and very few are married. They’re single, separated, widowed, or aunts without children who wish to embark on an adventure with their nieces.
Successful executives who escape from stress, business women who travel for professional reasons compatible with pleasure, and adventurers in search of tourism, pure and simple, they all have a medium-high economic level. They’re all looking to find themselves with complete freedom, and they wish to do it alone, and then later decide if they’re going to join other women who share the same affinities.
Economic self-sufficiency and the change of socio-family role has undoubtedly been their greatest ally. In history, they have pioneers who serve as a source of inspiration, great, intrepid and adventurous travellers who broke the mould and undertook long solo journeys at a time when society couldn’t get its head around the idea that women made plans for themselves and travelled alone without anyone to protect them.
This type of women’s tourism, the American “Women-Only” that has been successfully established in the US for many years, is now timidly looking to carve out a opening in Spain, but as yet doesn’t have the power that exists in the US, where there are already a large number of “Women Only” agencies. However, the number of fans in Spain is on the up and up. The 2018 TrekkSoft Travel Trends Report states that a search for “Solo female travel blog” returns more than 4 million search results on Google.
Google Trends has recorded how interest in female solo travel has only gained traction since 2013. According to the report, the average monthly search volume for the term “solo female travel” grew by 52% between 2016 and 2017, with an average of 2900 searches between October 2016 and September 2017. This is a clear indicator of a shift in the travel industry.
There are three Spanish agencies dedicated solely to women’s tourism, “focus on women”, “Mujer y Viajera” and “Wom Viajes”, which all offer custom-designed trips with very competitive prices to suit all budgets and tailor-made holidays adapted to all budgets.
We got to speak to Ana Blasco, the founder of “Wom Viajes”, and when we asked her about what Spanish women are looking for when travelling alone, she answered “a good time and to discover the world”. The profile of women who travel with “Wom Viajes” is not so much related to women who wish to travel completely alone, but rather who travel alone and would like to do it as part of a group. She also said that “sometimes they want to escape from it all, commitments, family obligations, work, etc. and enjoy this beautiful world by opening their minds, meeting new people, and getting to know fellow travel companions”.
The tourism industry has taken careful note of this/it, and we can now find the Artemisia Hotel for Women Only in the centre of Berlin. Others like the NH Diagonal Center have 10% of its rooms advertised as “Women Style” rooms. The Grange City Hotel in London has 68 specially designed rooms for female guests only. Furthermore, the luxury Hamilton Crowne Plaza in Franklin Square and the Hotel Bella Sky Comwell in Copenhagen both have one floor exclusively for female guests, intrepid women who have decided to ride alone in the Ladies Coupé.
