Let’s Talk About Sex

When you are planning your next holiday, does sex play a part in the decision making?

Now, before you think you’ve stumbled across Traveltalk After Dark, I do of course mean whether you prefer travelling solely with members of your own gender or are happy to mix and match.

Insight Vacations have just joined a growing number of travel companies in launching women-only tours. They say the move has been made partly in response to demand from females looking for same-sex travel experiences.

The company has responded with 11 trips across a variety of popular and varied destinations (Italy, the UK, Nepal, Egypt, etc), each offering something different to the 50+ market at which they are aimed.

“We have dabbled in a few one-off bespoke departures in the past and they’ve always done very well but they’ve never been part of our regular portfolio,” Toni Ambler, Managing Director of TTC Tour Brands, told me.

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If the response is good, it’s likely that TTC will not only expand the Insight range next year but may even consider introducing women-only tours across some of its other brands.

Hot on the heels of the Insight decision came news that Intrepid Travel had introduced a new 12-day Saudi Arabia Women’s Expedition, launching in November.

The trip is designed to create opportunities for local female leaders and guides while also supporting women-owned and operated businesses. It will offer an authentic and transformative travel experience while empowering women and supporting female-owned businesses in the destination.

“With tourism to Saudi focused on vast ultra-luxury offerings, we wanted to balance that by creating something completely unique in Saudi Arabia: a trip putting local women’s voices centre stage,” said Jenny Gray, product manager for Women’s Expeditions.

“With activities like joining a cooking class with a local female chef and getting pampered at a women-owned salon, the trip will give our travellers the chance to see a side of Saudi few get to experience.”

Intrepid’s Women’s Expedition product range launched in 2018 with the aim of “fostering discussion and creating immersive local experiences for women that wouldn’t be possible in mixed gender groups”.

It would seem the rise of women-only tours heralds the emergence of a new and potentially profitable sector of the travel industry.

All of which begs the question: what about male-only tours? Toni is diplomatic.

“I feel that a lot of that already exists for men by virtue of them being sports fanatics, in terms of rugby tours, cycling tours, golf tours and the like. Men are innately a bit more adventurous but at the moment there are no men’s only trips on the table. But let’s see, maybe…”

You read it here first, folks.

# Thanks to all those who have written in to say how much they love the new look Traveltalk magazine. It seems our mixture of first-hand reviews, in-depth interviews and deep dive features has hit a chord.

Make sure you check out our feature on Melanie Whyte, who helps people with neurodiverse children still experience the joys of travel, and our man Dan Lake reviews the world’s biggest cruise liner, Icon of the Seas.

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