G Adventures has put a new range of escorted tours for solo travellers on sale, its first travel style created exclusively for this market.
Called Solo-ish Adventures, the tagline for the programme is “travel for yourself, but not by yourself”.
There are 13 trips initially, offering itineraries in Jordan, Morocco, Peru, Costa Rica, South Africa, South Korea, Bali, Italy, Greece, Portugal, India, Vietnam and China, with the first departures in spring 2025.
They will all be escorted by women tour leaders – called chief experience officers (CEOs) at G Adventures.
Brian Young, managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at G Adventures, said: “A lot of our customers who travel solo are female, so all our Solo-ish Adventures will be led by female CEOs – and this is our way of empowering women to gain meaningful employment while leading those tours with G Adventures.”
He added: “We have a lot of solo travellers with G Adventures ordinarily and we are seeing this sector of solo travellers growing at quite a clip – and we are seeing a more mature customer wanting to travel in this way.
“People are much more adventurous nowadays. They don’t necessarily want to wait around – they are a generation of ‘see it, do it’ rather than ‘see it, plan it, think about it’.
“And there is the safety of travelling in a group of like-minded solo travellers with our dedicated CEOs.”
He noted how the tours will foster “meaningful connections” between travellers and the local communities – which also reflects the “connect” theme of next week’s conference from the Association of Touring and Adventure Suppliers (Atas).
“The first three days of all of our Solo-ish Adventures have been curated to create connections,” he said.
“On the first day, we’ll have something like a cooking lesson, where it brings the group together in shared experience, and then they’ll sit down and have that meal.
“Then the second day is making a meaningful connection as the group and our chief experience officer, and local community, a with community tourism activity.
“On the third day, we’ll have epic experiences – surprise moments that they might not ordinarily be able to do.
“One day of the tour is a ‘me day’ if [clients] want downtime to do their own thing, like chill out in a great hotel or the beach or swimming pool.”
Young said the operator’s trade sales team will be promoting the new range to agents, offering marketing assets and the opportunity for fam trips.
Yves Marceau, product vice-president, said more than half of G Adventures’ global travellers currently book as solo travellers.
“The barrier to travel for a lot of solo people was the fear of being bored or alone, surrounded by other couples as a third wheel, or a general fear of travelling solo in a new and unfamiliar location,” he added.
“Traveller mindsets are changing, however. We’ve seen a rise in the more mature traveller, who is no longer willing to wait for a partner, friends or family to book an adventure.
“Solo travellers are one of the fastest growing demographics in the travel industry.
“With no upper age limit, Solo-ish is open to everyone who wants to experience the adventure of a lifetime, while making some truly special friendships and memories along the way.”
Picture: Hanoi food market.