A few years ago I made the pronouncement that I was going to take a trip abroad. At that point, what I knew of the world consisted of a family vacation to Disney World’s Epcot Center in Orlando, Florida, when I was 12 and a rollicking parent-free trip to Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, when I was 19. I made my bold, declarative statement with the intentions of going on my own “Eat, Pray, Love” adventure with hopes it would be more like “Eat, Sleep, Instagram.”
Before I could even Google “best éclairs in France,” my plans encountered a bit of a snag. I was deterred by some voices of reason (my parents, the Internet, basic common sense) and put my plans on hold. The conclusion: It was not safe for a woman to travel alone. I felt defeated, if not a little bit angsty.
It seems silly that a woman can’t feel safe to travel alone, especially with more women actually doing it. According to a survey from Small Luxury Hotels of the World, there was a 53% increase in roomnights booked by single occupancy females between 2011 and 2012 in core markets. Among the core markets seeing an increase in female travelers are Hong Kong (which saw a 300% increase) and Germany (a 153% increase).
A 2011 survey of U.K. and U.S. travelers by CAP Strategic Research revealed that women represent the most important and fastest growing segment of the travel market. According to the survey, 66% of women said travel companies would see an increase in business if they tried harder to serve women travelers.
As exciting as these numbers are—hey, women like to travel, too!—there’s always a flip side.
In India, for example, recent public attacks on women—not to mention brutal rapes—are discouraging women from visiting the country. A report from the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, as reported by the New York Times, said visits to India by female tourists dropped 35% in the first three months of the year compared with the same period last year.
While attacks on Indian women are more common, according to the Times article, foreign female travelers are victims, too. The paper cited three recent incidents of foreign female travelers being raped or, in the case of a 25-year-old British tourist, being so fearful that the hotel owner was going to sexually assault her that she jumped off the balcony of her hotel room.
Why does it seem, then, that such an important demographic to the travel industry is also the same demographic that can’t travel in peace—with the same ease and nonchalance as men?
The hotel industry can be on the forefront of quelling these fears and combating any incidents of violence to women. A hotelier’s job is customer service above all. Creating an environment where a female traveler feels safe will make that hotel stand out. Some hotels are taking this seriously by ensuring their hotel is a safe haven for female travelers. I’ve written stories about the importance of the female consumer and hotels that offer women-only floors, but the hotel and tourism industry can only do so much.
These are all preventive measures, but what it really comes down to is a global shift in thinking about women, who are oppressed, degraded and treated as inferior beings in many parts of the world. Unfortunately, not even I can take down the patriarchy in one day (and I try). It can be exhausting and infuriating to be a woman—not to mention a women traveler, who must follow cultural, often oppressive,norms—when traveling, including modifying wardrobes to follow female dress standards to not going out past dark in some countries. Sometimes it seems like women are less free now than they were before any type of women’s liberation movement.
Or maybe it’s just time for a different one.
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