Going solo during the pandemic: a generational segmentation of solo female travellers

ABSTRACTThis paper is driven both by a growing appetite for solo female travel; as well as a knowledge gap in the market and literature. The aim is to identify generational differences in women's solo travel motivations, characterize the generational differences in their preferred destination attributes, and ascertain any generational differences in their perceived inhibiting factors to travelling solo post the COVID-19 pandemic. By using the push?pull framework theory as the overarching framework, a survey was administered and 1576 responses from experienced solo female travellers were analysed. The findings revealed the different generations of solo female travellers and their distinctive travel needs (push factor/motivation, pull factor/destination preference, and inhibiting factors/risk & constraint) during the COVID pandemic.