05 Mar 2025by Eloise Barker
Women-only tours help remove all sorts of invisible barriers, but more women are needed to help promote the benefits of these tours – and to run them, writes Responsible Travel’s Eloise Barker for TTG ahead of International Women’s Day on 8 March.
Demand for women-only trips is rising. At Responsible Travel, enquiries for this style of travel have gone up by nearly a fifth (18%) over the past three years.
Solo female travel is gaining column inches, and The Adventure Travel Trade Association reports that 57% of its clients are now women.
So what’s the appeal of holidays for – and by – women, and how can we respond to growing demand?
The benefits
Women-only tours help remove all sorts of invisible barriers.
They offer activities that aren’t possible on mixed tours, and uniquely female insights in countries where different genders experience the world in very different ways due to high levels of segregation or inequality.
Additionally, women-only holidays offer supportive, open spaces – for example, on wellness retreats, where sharing health experiences isn’t taboo.
More women-only tours are emerging in spaces where women have traditionally felt excluded.
As a keen sailor who used to work on boats, I found the strict onboard hierarchies open to abuse and casual sexism – even little things, like my knots always being tested more than others.
I’m delighted we’ve launched a women-only sailing holiday led by a female skipper and crew.
For women, by women
When booking big trips, worries about ability and safety come up more than I would care to admit. Women in tourism can give other women confidence to book trips out of their comfort zones.
On a recent trip to India, I was inspired by some of the women I met – the naturalists, managers and business owners, and local charity project leaders.
My airport transfer set the tone. I was driven by the founder of an all-female taxi company. It was my first time in India and indeed South Asia. Her story was fascinating, and her presence very reassuring.
That sense of reassurance can be crucial. Our women-only trips prioritise working with female guides and leaders who are able to reassure women who enquire, such as on the pace and fitness requirements of a hiking holiday.
Claire Copeman, who is the director of one of our partners Adventure Tours UK, says she still sees hesitation from female travellers around endurance and adventurous trips and thinks speaking to her majority-female team can give them confidence.
Everyone wins
Women-only tours benefit women in destinations too. While women make up most of the global travel workforce, they are often in lower-paid or unpaid roles. Women-only tours foreground the female experience. For that, you need female guides, drivers and leaders.
Promoting women-only tours
Since 2024, we’ve had in-house staff assigned to grow our offering of holidays from women entrepreneurs and female guides.
We relaunched our guide highlighting trips that are run by women, many of which attract solo female travellers or have women-only departures.
They include Eternal Landscapes, which runs a women-only Mongolia tour. Founder Jess Brooks was recently awarded Gender Champion of the Year by Equality in Tourism International.
Barker: ‘Women in tourism can give other women confidence to book trips out of their comfort zones’
More than half of our partners operate locally. Many are small, specialist businesses and don’t have the luxury of limiting their clientele.
Solo female and women-only travel is here to stay. But more work needs to be done to promote the benefits of all-women tours so smaller operators can run them too.
And we’ll need more women across our industry to meet demand.
Eloise Barker is a travel writer for operator Responsible Travel. International Women’s Day is on Saturday 8 March.
