Female solo travels to south Asian destinations and sustaining loneliness

Abstract

While there has been an increase in the number of tourists travelling solo, there is a steady growth in females travelling alone as tourists around the globe. This phenomenon has led to a growing scholarly interest, yet solo female travel as a research topic is relatively under-researched. Only limited knowledge exists about the psychological issues of female solo travel, such as loneliness. There is a gap in our understanding of interpreting solo travel by females, depending on their country of origin and the type of destinations they have travelled solo. This study examined these aspects by exploring female solo travelling in South Asian destinations with European and Asian participants. The results revealed that the meaning of solo travelling is associated with four themes: freedom pursuit, being with the self, self-enhancement, and connectedness with people. It also disclosed that solo female travellers have different perceptions about ‘loneliness,’ and everyone does not see loneliness as a negative outcome. The results further indicate that the perception of solo travel and loneliness and how to cope with lonely times are likely to be subjective to the type of destinations where solo travelling takes place and the country of origin of the travellers.

Understanding Solo Female Travellers in Canada: A Two-Factor Analysis of Hotel Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction Using TripAdvisor Reviews

“…Unlike family or group travellers, who primarily interact with their companions, solo female travellers often engage with fellow guests, roommates, or the host in shared accommodations. This interaction aligns with existing studies on motivations, such as social interaction factors [12], the opportunity for connectedness with people [43], or the challenge of loneliness [44]. It is also a cost-saving or risk-mitigating strategy, emphasizing the importance of the social aspect of their lodging experience.…”

“…Osman et al's [12] study on Vietnamese solo female travellers concluded with two categories of motivations: personal factors, including freedom and flexibility, self-empowerment, independence, and exploration; social interaction factors, such as lack of companions and the opportunity to meet new people. More specifically, they are inspired by the opportunity to seek freedom, self-development and self-enhancement, being autonomous through travelling solo, and connectedness with people [1,12,43]. Similarly, Breda et al's [44] study, which focused on Portuguese women, identified the key motivations of solo female travellers as including the absence of a travel companion, freedom of choice, the pursuit of adventure and experience, and escaping from the daily routine.…”

“…Although the existing literature largely links the motivations of solo female travellers to non-sexual factors [12,43]), recent research has started to examine the role of sexual factors in solo female travel [82,83]. Notably, Frohlick [84] highlights a trend where western women engage with local men in non-western and developing countries, bringing attention to the phenomenon of female sex tourists.…”

Solo female travelers: a systematic literature review and future research agenda

“…The main studied topic on SFTs is travel experiences, which refer to the evaluations that occur after the trip (Woodside and King, 2001) (also see Box 3 in the TPCS model) (Neluhena et al , 2023; Yang et al , 2019; Nikjoo et al , 2021; Su and Wu, 2020). Travel experience tends to be evaluated holistically rather than on a single attribute (Chen and Chen, 2010) and can be pleasant or unpleasant feelings about their trip.…”

“…Reviews of the travel experiences of these SFTs revealed different travel experiences from the non-SFTs. SFTs’ travel experiences improve intrapersonal development, including freedom pursuit, being with self, self-enhancement and confidence (Neluhena et al , 2023; Jordan and Gibson, 2005), meaning-making, power and empowerment and facilitation of self-awareness and transformation (Nikjoo et al , 2021). Non-SFTs’ travel experiences improve one's relationships and bond with others who travel together, such as family and friends (Durko and Petrick, 2013; Heimtun and Abelsen, 2012).…”