Traveling alone as a woman has long been a source of concern. Women often face bigger issues with safety when traveling, in some countries more than others. As such, an entire sub-industry within travel has grown over the past several years helping women experience the world on their own and safely. In turn, that has led to an ever increasing number of women hitting the road by themselves. And that is starting to show in the numbers.
Future Partners conducted a survey of 4,000 travelers from the United States about their solo travel plans. 40% of women indicated that they would be interested and would be inclined to make such plans in 2025. This is an increase of 8% over 2024. That doesn't seem like a huge number but 8% of millions of potential travels is a big deal.
This represents a huge shift in the travel industry. Even a decade ago, the numbers of solo female travelers was significantly smaller and for practical reasons, unfortunately. These kinds of increases hopefully indicate that women overall feel safer traveling by themselves. That could also be saying positive things about world society as a whole. Again, it's important to keep in mind that there are still places in the world which are simply not safe for women traveling on their own, so do your research.
The increased number of companies catering to solo female travelers is also a good thing for the industry. Keeping in mind this is a chicken and egg conversation, it's hard to say if these companies led to more women traveling on their own or more women traveling on their own led to the growth of these companies. Frankly, it's probably a little bit from column A and a little bit from column B. Regardless, this does mean worldwide increases for the travel industry.