Surveys are wonderful things. Just when you think you have a good handle on the guides info, when, where and why, a survey will generate results that challenge those ideas.
Take for example the recent travel interests survey that Women Traveling Together sent to 7000 women in April 2006. My first surprise was how many responses we got. The experts say you’re doing “good” if you can get a 5% response rate. Well, we did far better than that, coming in at almost 9%, (representing the opinions of over 600 women).
We will, of course, use the survey results to develop our tour schedule but some surprising tid-bits concerning the “who, when, where and why” of women’s travel preferences were also revealed. The survey results showed…
Who Women Travel With…
- Finding a travel partner is tough. More than 65% of women said that they were having a hard time finding someone to travel with.
- …But when they do travel, they like to travel with the girls! Most either traveled with a girlfriend or alone, but in either case went with a women’s group.
When Women Travel…
- Women will travel whatever time of year they can! 45% of the women said anytime is a good time to travel.
- Women are “travel crazy.” Over 40% of the women surveyed had taken 4 or more trips in the past 18 months.
Where Women Travel…
- Women like new destinations. 65% of the women responding said they’d rather go to new places, than return to places they’d been.
- Alaska here we come! Alaska was the top U.S. destination by a landslide.
- Italy, Italy, and Italy. The overwhelming first choice for Europe was Italy.
Why Women Travel…
- The beauty of Mother Earth is why women travel. The top reason to take a trip-no matter where the destination was to see the natural beauty the destination has to offer.