Women-only travel segment carves out a niche in tourism

“Travel is about the gorgeous feeling of teetering in the unknown”: Anthony Bourdain, the legendary American chef, author, and travel documentarian once said. And this unknown, today seems to be what women travellers are getting drawn to more than ever before. In the Indian societal context, where travel/holiday is considered more or less a family affair, the past few years have been outliers. The travel and tourism industry is now seeing the emergence of a women-only travel segment that can't be ignored. Women travellers form anywhere between 10-15% of the customer base for the large organised sector players, and 100% for some new-age ventures that specially cater to them. The urge to travel, be it as girl gangs, BFF (best friends forever) travels, bachelorette trips, kitty party getaways, or solo travelling, whether domestic or international, is not just restricted to GenZs or millennials, but is also seeing older women seeking to venture out on their own.

From being one of the worst-hit sectors due to the Covid pandemic, globally, the travel and tourism industry has started picking up slowly. Just to give a sense of the post-pandemic Indian travel market, according to the Ministry of Tourism, the calendar year 2021 saw around 85 lakh Indian nationals’ departures, out of which nearly 33% or nearly 3 crore people travelled for leisure, holiday, and recreation (international tourism). Out of this, 71.7% were men and 28.3% were women. Even domestic tourists in 2021, states, and union territories in India saw nearly 67 crore of domestic tourists and about 10 lakh foreign tourists. However, tourism is yet to come back to the 2019 levels where the country saw over 232 crore domestic and 3.1 crore foreign tourists.

That said, the pandemic also acted as a catalyst bringing a change in the outlook toward travel. The uncertainty of life, accentuated by Covid, has made people take up travel at the very instance, then put it off to a later date. Also, with women more socially and financially independent today, women-only travellers constitute nearly 15% of the business for India’s biggest travel company Thomas Cook (India) Limited, and the company is witnessing 35-40% growth in demand from this segment, from a single-digit number a decade ago. For the Delhi-based EaseMyTrip, post-Covid, women form nearly 40% of domestic and 30% of international tours.

Instead of run-off-the-mill tours, to woo this segment, most travel companies are looking at providing customised experiences. “What is noteworthy is that women travellers are actively seeking experiential/interest-based programmes including outdoor-adventure, self-drives, cruises, culture, spa-wellness, gastronomy, and shopping,” says Rajeev Kale-President & Country Head, Holidays, MICE, Visa - Thomas Cook (India) Limited.

Also, depending on the age group, while women travellers over 35 years, with presumably more disposable income seek more premium to luxury experiences, those in the 27-35 years bracket (millennials/young professionals) seek budget or affordable luxury experiences. “This demand is emerging from not only India’s metros, but also mini metros, tier 2-3 cities,” says Daniel D’Souza, President & Country Head - Holidays, SOTC Travel.

While companies are focusing on women’s interests, Rikant Pittie, Co-Founder, EaseMyTrip says what women travellers ask for most is adequate safety and security measures, along with comfortable and inclusive accommodations, access to female-friendly amenities, dependable transportation options, and also the availability of female aides or travel companions.

It is not just the large travel companies that are reaping the benefits of this phenomenon, in fact, there is an emergence of new age travel companies, travel clubs, and groups that are specially catering to women travellers or have a special focus such as Wander Womaniya, Wovoyage, Wandering Jane, among others. For example, having worked in the hospitality sector before starting his venture in 2018, Wander Womaniya’s founder Anuj Jain says he has seen over 17,000 enquiries from women travellers in the last three years, with over 1,000 signing up for experiences. With social media playing a critical role in discovery and reach for such businesses, “Instagram and Google reviews draw a lot of our traffic and our website is also very active as compared to others, which also plays a major factor,” says Jain.

Women embracing travel and seeking experiences have also led to a number of women-led and all-women-team travel companies such as Wonderful World, F5 Escapes, Make It Happen, Bohemian Adventures LLP, to name a few. With a focus on experiential travel, many of these companies are actively nurturing the local ecosystem in such travel destinations. For instance, ‘Make It Happen’, the experiential travel company founded by Maria Victor and Murali Shankaran, collaborates with locals to give travellers an authentic experience of places such as Goa, Diu, and Coonoor. With Maria’s roots in Goa, ‘Make It Happen’ pivoted towards cultural experience with the goal to change the Sun, sand, and booze tourism narrative of the state. They host walk tours, and virtual tours, and showcase the culture through stories. Having catered to nearly 27,000 since she started the company, “The storytelling approach is quite unique to us,” Maria says adding that “post-Covid we have a seen a spike in demand for experiences and a change in traveller behaviour where travellers are seeking more meaningful sustainable experiences.”

In the case of Anusha Subramanium, a certified mountaineer, who along with her friends Shashi Bahuguna and Guneet Puri, also mountaineers, runs ‘Bohemian Adventures’, which offers hiking and mountaineering experience. With a focus on ecology, sustainable adventure, they conduct hikes and treks in the Himalayas (including the Everest base) camp and the Sahyadris. Their aim is to make the outdoors inclusive. With repeat clients of over 90 % and a 3:1 guide ratio at treks, Anusha says, “Today, 80% of our clients are women senior citizens and senior citizens and persons and kids with a disability”. They also have several women guides as part of the venture in order to encourage more women to take this up as a profession in the hills. Anusha says they have taken over 1,000 people on treks to the mountains in the last 4-5 years.

Some of the latest research reports also paint a bright picture of India’s hospitality and tourism industry and its potential. CBRE’s latest report puts the total investment in the sector in India post-COVID-19 (2020-2023) to be over $400 million and over $ 2 billion being planned in the pipeline. The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) estimates the travel market in India to reach US$ 125 billion by FY27, from an estimated US$75 billion in FY20. With the travel segment looking up for the coming decade, and technology helping in making travel safer, easy, and staying connected, industry experts have no doubt this segment will continue to drive more traction in coming years.