How women-only tours are reshaping the way we travel

Women are pivotal to shaping the travel industry. From deciding which destinations to visit to booking the trip, they make 82% of all travel decisions, according to Skift Research’s 2024 The Woman Traveler report. Women also travel more frequently than men — the same Skift report stated that 64% of travellers globally are female. So, as female travellers increasingly lean towards women-only tours, the travel industry is leaning with them.

Over the last few years, the Adventure Travel Trade Association has seen a 230% increase in the number of travel companies catering specifically to women. Meanwhile, existing operators are expanding their product ranges. For those already in operation, bookings are on the up. Responsible Travel has seen an 18% increase in interest for its women-only holidays over the last three years. And Intrepid Travel, one of the biggest operators in this space, saw a 59% increase in bookings for its Women’s Expeditions in 2024 compared to the year before. But what exactly is driving this growing trend?

The new zeitgeist

A pioneer in the industry since 1982, US-based operator AdventureWomen has been offering women-only, small-group tours to everywhere from the polar regions to Asia and Africa for over 40 years. Hot on its heels is Wild Women Expeditions, which has been running since 1991, focusing on remote locations. Female-led travel, then, is hardly new. But women-only tours have undeniably moved from a niche space to becoming part of the zeitgeist more recently.

Money has a lot to do with it, according to Claire Copeman, founder of Adventure Tours UK. “More and more women now have the financial independence to be able to do their own thing,” she explains. The data seems to back it up. Women are now on average wealthier than ever, according to one recent report by investment bank UBS. And while the overall gender pay gap remains, research from the Centre for Social Justice suggests that it has been reversed for Gen Zers in the UK, with women now earning, on average, £2,200 more per year than men.

But there’s also been an increase in the desire to travel. When you look at Google Trends data between June 2020 and June 2025, there’s been a 600% increase in global searches for ‘travel companies for solo female travellers’, and a 200% increase for ‘solo trips for women’, among other similar search queries.

Crucially, though, not all solo female travellers are going it completely alone — many are instead joining group tours, independent of their friends and family. Virtuoso, a network of companies specialising in luxury and experiential travel for individuals and groups, says that as of 2024, 71% of its solo travel customers are women.

Potential cost savings is one reason why solo female travellers are turning to group tours. In a survey of its members, community platform Solo Female Travelers found that 71% of women were reluctant to go on their first solo trip because they’re worried about the higher costs. Safety is another factor, as cited by 59% of respondents to the same survey. That’s hardly surprising when, statistically speaking, women are far more likely to be victims of headline crime than men.

Although mixed group tours address both of these concerns to a certain extent, for some female travellers, women-only journeys add an extra layer of security. Take Carli Korik, volunteer at online community Girls Who Travel. Having travelled both on her own and with groups, she found that women-only tours took away some of the ‘unknowns’ that come with being in mixed company. “Spending a week or two in close quarters with men you don’t know just means you have to be more aware, which is fine — as women we all do that without thinking,” she explains. “But it’s a huge relief not to have to think twice about who you’re sitting with on the bus or if you need to cover your drink. It’s not just about avoiding something bad happening. It’s about being able to let your guard down.”

Making connections

Safety isn’t the only reason to choose a women-only tour. “Women are seeking experiences that feel deeply meaningful — and often, that’s in the company of other women,” says Deborah Calmeyer, founder and CEO of luxury specialist Roar Africa.

That was certainly the case for former coffee shop owner April Seals-Partner, who booked her trip during a stressful period of her life. “I chose a women-only tour because I wasn’t looking for just another getaway — I was seeking sisterhood,” she explains. “In mixed-gender spaces, the subtle emotional safety that sisterhood offers often gets diluted. In a women-only space, vulnerability is healing and conversations go deep — fast. We laugh louder and hold space for one another in a way that’s simply unmatched.” That first experience was so transformative, in fact, that Seals-Partner went on to start her own female-led travel firm, Radiant Escapes, so more women could have the same experience.

For Josie Prior, a HR manager who attends women-only retreats annually, being able to connect with other women and having the mental and physical space to reset was part of the appeal. “I chose female-only groups as I was searching for answers from other women,” she says. Without sisters to turn to, women-only retreats became a vital place for the female-led conversations that were missing from her daily life. “We spoke about the menopause, empty nesting, you name it. Some opened up about subjects they couldn’t talk to their friends about,” Prior explains. “As we didn’t really know each other, there was no judging.”

Candid conversations

Women-only tours can also open up more meaningful travel experiences in other ways. For Intrepid, a driving force behind the launch of its Women’s Expeditions back in 2018 was that societal norms in destinations like the Middle East meant interactions with locals were often limited when there’s a mixed group. The travel firm created its first women-only tours to Morocco, Iran and Jordan — places that have traditionally been more conservative. These tours now include India, Nepal, Türkiye, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

On these trips, female travellers and their hosts are given more chances “to have candid conversations about their daily lives”, says Joanna Reeve, Intrepid’s UK and Ireland manager. By being part of an all-female tour, guests also get the chance to enter women-only spaces that would otherwise be off-limits. You might go swimming at a women-only beach in Saudi Arabia, for example, or visit a woman’s home in India.

And then there’s the emotional support you get, particularly on active or adventurous trips. Copywriter and keen hiker Kim Merritt experienced this on a women-only trip to Mongolia with WHOA Travel. She says: “When one woman was having a particularly tough go, our guide rallied us together to cheer her up. When I was struggling to climb a steep incline, our guide taught me how to do it more efficiently.” There was no judgement, just lots of encouragement.

The ripple effect

The UN’s latest Global Report on Women in Tourism revealed that women make up 54% of the global tourism workforce. At the same time, there’s burgeoning evidence that trips supporting women-owned businesses have wider, positive economic and social implications. Various studies have shown that women-owned businesses are more likely to create positive social impact, whether that’s through creating jobs for other women or by supporting those in their community. In this context, it’s not hard to imagine that women-only tours will have an increasingly important role to play in responsible tourism.

Anecdotally, it’s already possible to see the benefits of women-only tours in play. Intrepid, for example, provides employment opportunities for women by incorporating locally led experiences into all of its Women’s Expeditions and many of its other tours. “This helps to ensure tourism dollars are going directly to local women, which helps to support them, and often their families and wider communities too,” says Reeve.

Currently the tour operator is the largest employer of female tour guides in both India and Morocco, and it’s looking to increase this further. It also supports charities that help local women through its tours. On its Women’s Expedition to India for example, guests visit the Sheroes Hangout in Agra, which offers employment opportunities and support to survivors of acid attacks.

On a smaller scale, Roar Africa has hosted a roving Women’s Empowerment Retreat around the African continent since 2019. Through it, educational opportunities, scholarships, exchange programmes and funding for critical conservation and women’s health initiatives have all been created, according to Calmeyer.

Whether intended or not, it seems those choosing specialist women-only tours achieve a rare combination: a meaningful journey that’s not only good for them, but also beneficial to society at large. And in a world where our travel decisions can hugely impact the local communities we meet, that can only be a good thing.