Global Excellence in Warwick.
(Al Aleixo)
The travel industry has an emerging market sector – women – and it’s not going unnoticed.
According to a recent survey conducted by WomenTrend research, a consulting firm based in Washington D.C, women make 75 percent of all the travel decisions – causing many hotels, booking agents, and tour companies to target them as a market sector.
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“Over the past decade, the travel industry has realized a great amount of success in targeting niche travel markets,” said Robin Crandall, director of Membership Development for the Institute of Certified Travel Agents. “Women travelers are one market that has experienced a tremendous surge in purchasing growth. As we learn more about and perfect our strategies to cater to the woman traveler, I expect this market to have an even greater impact in the coming years.”
A travel consultant for almost 19 years, Judy Hay said the number of women traveling is definitely increasing – and has been for the last four to five years.
“When I started in this business it was mostly men who were doing the traveling,” said Hay, an agent with Global Excellence in Warwick. “Certainly in the last few years, even more lately, there are definitely more women traveling.”
And while men used to make all the travel plans, both business and leisure, today Hay said in her experience, it’s the exact opposite.
“I would say it’s about 50-50, with possibly even more women making the travel plans,” she said. “There has been a big increase in corporate women travelers. I think that is because more women are taking over positions that were traditionally held by men, like sales. We are definitely seeing more women in sales traveling.”
According to a recent study conducted by New York University, 40 percent of women traveling on business are the primary sole wage earners in their households, and nearly one-third of them have household incomes of $100,000 or more. Furthermore, the study found that women are less likely then men to book a hotel room on-line
“Whether traveling by themselves, in groups, as half of a couple or mother of families, women are driving more purchase decisions that ever,” Crandall said. “Travel industry professionals who draw in their business will reap the rewards.”
For the travel industry, tapping into this new market often requires delivering on a certain level of expectation.
“Some of the hotels in larger cities like Chicago and Los Angeles, have floors designated specifically for women,” Hay said. “These floors include rooms with amenities like bathrobes, Crab Tree and Evelyn soaps and things like that.”
Unlike hotels, Hay said neither car rental companies nor airlines can or will do much to accommodate the female traveler.
“For the most part they don’t do anything special for the woman traveler,” she said. “They don’t have to. These are services that women have to use to get from one place to another.”
One of the key concerns of the woman traveler, according to the WomenTrend survey is safety.
“Women don’t want to stay where there is an outside entrance to their room because it is easier to get mugged,” Hay said. “Many of your hotels are conscious of this. Some will even put security phones on the women floors, and will accompany women to their rooms to assure that they arrive safely. Safety issues are definitely a prime concern.”
Hay said women travelers are also more interested in the safety records of the airlines they fly on.
“For women travelers, the on-time records of the airline and the safety records are very important,” she said.
According to Hay, one reason for the concern is that women travelers often have an interest in returning to their families quicker that their male counterparts.
“Women travelers want to get in and out as quick as they can,” she said. “They want to get home as quickly as possible, while the male traveler is more likely to stay overnight in the city he is visiting.”
