Seven tips for marketing to the female traveler

In any marketing campaign it’s important to target your audience based on their demographics and previous spending patterns. This year, over 70% of travel plans were made by women (www.about.com). Women are planning business trips, college visits, family vacations and family reunions. When it comes to leisure travel, women make 94% of the final decisions of where to vacation (Meredith Travel Marketing). Given how much power and influence women have in the tourism market, it can be beneficial to create specific campaigns to reach them. By 2015, women are expected to control 60% of the country’s wealth and they are traveling (www.gutsytraveler.com).

The average female traveler is 47 years old, and tends to develop their plans based on magazine ads and articles, social media and internet research. Many organizations have started specific campaigns targeted to this audience via digital, media and advertising. In addition, many hotels have started offering services that cater to the female traveler. 

Some things to keep in mind when creating campaigns targeted to this market are:

• They will research several options and seek out the differentiating features in each one.
• Security is important to them.
• They rely on peer recommendations and advice, making social media a great tool for reaching this market.
• Their travel standards have been affected by previous experiences as a business traveler so they expect the same level of quality in hotels and service that they have had when traveling in their careers.
• Women are a more adventurous group so they seek unusual and new types of travel experiences.
• The number of women traveling solo is growing, so group travel opportunities to explore interests such as agritourism, sports, etc. are attractive to them.
• Intellectual stimulation has become more popular in travel.

Designing campaigns specifically around this growing market has the potential to increase any businesses’ bottom line. Given the growth and spending power that women have had and continue to have, it’s a market that can’t be ignored.