Bitten by wanderlust, all-woman groups travel the world

Pune: When Vidhi Shah went on her first women-only group tour to Dubai, she couldn’t stop talking about it for weeks. It was a trip filled with things she loves to do. “When we go on trips with family, it’s all about visiting tourist spots and children-friendly places. On a girl’s trip, the focus is on some things that we love the most and the tour I went on was centred around the Dubai shopping festival. We had a blast,” Shah said. She not only went on a major shopping spree but also partied on a yacht cruise there, she added.Women-only group tours, which offer both companionship and safety, have seen a spike in the number of inquiries in the recent past. “It’s not only the metros, but we are getting women travellers from cities like Pune, Lucknow, Coimbatore, Gwalior and even Nagpur, to name a few. Our December tours are completely sold out,” Sumitra Senapaty, founder of The WOW Club, which started in 2005 with the idea of creating an alternate space for women to socialise, said.Many of these women-only travel clubs host over fifty group tours a year. These group trips have become the top choice for many because there is a sense of safety and security as compared to solo trips. “There is safety in numbers and I think in this uncertain world, it makes sense to travel in a group. I tried doing a couple of solo trips earlier, but now I feel the need to travel with other like-minded individuals,” Kshama Gupta, a resident of Pashan, said.These groups feature not only solo-woman travellers but even mother-daughter duos and groups of friends. Women see these group tours as an opportunity to meet travellers from different countries.Tour operators said that the average age of women joining these tours is between 25 and 60 years old. According to them, it is the younger women who generally opt for adventure trips and treks. “Irrespective of age, women are increasingly seeking unique travel experiences. Depending on the season, there is a good demand for tours to Kerala, the North East, Ladakh, Pondicherry within India. When travelling abroad, women prefer to go to Japan, Korea, Europe and Turkey, to name a few,” Anuj Jain, founder of Wander Womaniya, said.Keeping in mind the general safety of the location and if special skills are required, the women clubs also bring in experts to join the group. “Sometimes if we are taking trips to the Mount Everest base camp or other adventure trips, we might decide to collaborate with experts to ensure that all aspects of the trip are covered,” Piya Bose, Founder, Girls on the Go Club, said.
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