Why women book more trips than men do
We, at 15toGO, love statistics. They help us identify the trends in the travel industry and prepare to meet our future users’ expectations. We expect the application for group travelers that we are currently developing to be the driving force behind the evolution of tourism’s ‘Activities’ sector. For this very reason, we need to be well-aware of the tendencies that have shaped the industry as it is right now.
One of the most noticeable trends, backed by solid data from 2017, is the fact that almost 70% of the tours and activities are booked by women. Part of the whole process includes also the thorough research and preparation for the trip, as men, in general, tend to leave these responsibilities entirely to their female partners.
Merely 9% of the women who were questioned about it, revealed that they would leave this task to their loved one. In fact, less than 25% of the women responded in the poll that they would be happy to let their partner make all the holiday decisions.Almost all of the poll participants (both male and female) stated that they were content with the status quo — which means that this trend will not be changing anytime soon.
The way women travel is also different from the way men do. As it turns out, women enjoy adventure traveling, and to immerse themselves in foreign cultures. Women show an appreciation for acquiring new skills, such as learning new languages, how to row a boat, ride a horse and other outdoor activities. Women also seem to enjoy establishing connections to other cultures through community service projects abroad. Whether it’s helping with agriculture in Ghana or teaching English in Ecuador, these volunteer vacations are becoming more and more common.
Some other statistics paint a fuller picture of the female impact on traveling, as it is evident that women comprise 54% of the affluent travelers with annual incomes of $250,000 or more — which is with 12% more than the 42% from 2010. 40% of business travelers nowadays are women, while 30 years ago female executives comprised only 1%.
Even more surprisingly, the profile of the average adventure traveler is actually a female, who’s 47 years old. Furthermore, 91% of female clients who book trips together with other females prefer to travel with their friends and only 8% journey with relatives.
In the past six years, the increase in the number of women-only travel companies has amounted to the staggering 230% due to the fact that nearly 2/3 of travelers today are women. They are as many as 65 million and the potential of this vast market exceeds $19 trillion annually. Тhe Travel Industry Association has estimated that around 32 million single women from the US travel at least once a year. At the same time, as a Forbes article points out ‘only 5% to 7% of all cryptocurrency users are women, making the industry a highly male-dominated one’. In order for our product to be embraced by the majority of female travelers, we are intending to make the payment process as seamless as possible by integrating debit and credit card payments, saving users from the hassle of registering on any cryptocurrency exchanges.
Although the 15toGO application is designed in such a way that can appeal to both sexes, a special focus is put on the female user experience. Men have shown to neglect large portions of information, while women, in general, are more interested in a trip’s details, meaning that we cannot leave any space for ambiguity. Each activity is to be described by the Local Tour Operator thoroughly, including information about every step of the trip, as well as cancellation policies. This will allow the users to take the best decision possible, based on the abundance of valuable data. The research also concludes that women make more inquiries to the local tour operators in general. They want to know for sure that the organizers are experienced and trustworthy indeed — this is why we will be providing them with the chance to get directly in touch with the LTOs via a communication channel (in other words — chat). The newly gathered information would enable the service provider to tailor the experience according to his clients’ specific needs and wishes.
Matching with people is quite trendy as well — not only for dating purposes but also as a means to find other individuals with common interests. Traveling and online dating both seem not to lack a strong female presence. The most popular dating apps, Tinder and OkCupid, an estimated 50 million people use Tinder every month with an average of 12 million matches per day, both have a 50:50 male to female ratio. At the same time, there are other applications, which reveal a dominant female presence. Such an example is Match with its 2 million registered users, of which 60% are women! In Bumble, on the other hand, 59% of the users are ladies and in Coffee Meets Bagel — 58%. Considering all the above-mentioned tendencies, it is safe to say that an application like 15toGO will have its significant portion of female presence.
Booking a trip is a thrilling experience, comparable to buying a luxurious gift for oneself. We aspire to not only preserve this sensation, cultivated by the online travel agencies but also enhance it through a visually enticing and easy-to-navigate application.
References
Forbes, 2017, https://www.forbes.com/sites/lamjackie/2017/12/10/where-are-the-women-in-the-blockchain-network/#692ef85b530a
Travel Daily Media, 2013, https://www.traveldailymedia.com/women-book-more-holidays-survey/
The Gutsy Traveler, https://gutsytraveler.com/women-travel-statistics-women-travel-trends/
Boston Globe, 2016, https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/travel/2016/08/10/most-travelers-today-are-women-and-industry-may-finally-catching/MrBBK7ZqAt13VqT6Kp50PJ/story.html
Bustle, 2016, https://www.bustle.com/articles/154205-heres-how-many-women-vs-men-use-tinder
