Aaron Hocking, EMEA regional director, Intrepid Travel on why solo tours are taking off
There has been a noticeable rise in solo travel and Intrepid has embraced this by adding more tours for those travelling on their own. This is in response to a 40% increase in solo passengers on group trips over the past five years and a 30% increase in engagement for solo travel content on our blog compared to last year.
Intrepid launched solo departures in 2017 in many popular destinations including Bali, India and Vietnam. Although the tours include exactly the same activities as standard departures, the solo-only range is perfect for those looking to join a trip with other like-minded solo travellers.
Our solo departures are continuing to be popular with customers, so much so that we’ve extended departures for our Classic Peru tour through to 2020 and our Best of Morocco into 2019. We’ve also seen figures rising 34% for the number of solo female travellers at Intrepid.
When travelling solo, its often easy to fall into the tourist traps and follow the crowds, but Intrepid’s small group travel provide a benefit to anyone travelling solo; our local leaders. They will take travellers to the hidden gems of the region and they know the parts of towns to avoid, so there is safety and knowledge to hand at all times.
Skift’s Trends Report highlights the rise of ‘transformative travel’ that takes a closer look at how travellers are shifting towards meaning, purpose, and personal fulfilment. This is something we’ve always believed in at Intrepid and we will continue to provide these options to solo travellers no matter what age, gender or budget to help make the decision to go alone a lot easier. Along with our breadth of destinations and styles of travel – such as cycling, food tours or sailing – there’s generally a lot more choice too.
And this isn’t just limited to our solo range, even on our standard tours we don’t charge solo travellers more, if people are happy sharing with someone of the same gender, why be forced to pay extra?
There are a number of ways to take a solo trip and we provide our customers with the opportunities to have an immersive experience and share this with other like-minded people from across the world. Customers on our trips come back to say that it was easy to bond with other travellers due to a mutual love for travel and an excitement to explore. They have explained that these trips offer instant friendships, the safety of a tour guide and often a better price. The fact that we help change the way people see the world by travelling in a style that suits them is what gets me out of bed in the morning.
I’m proud to say that we have spent almost 30 years picking the best restaurants, accommodation options, organising transport and all other logistics of travel to alleviate the stress of planning and navigating unfamiliar environments alone.
In short whether in a group on your own, we want to help you go travel.
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