New Delhi  : Just ahead of the International Women’s Day, TripAdvisor®, the world’s largest travel site revealed the findings from its annual Women Travel Survey 2014, collected from 1068 women respondents. The survey, now in its second year is aimed at understanding the travel sentiment and preferences of Indian women with respect to leisure travel while travelling as a single woman or as part of an all-women group.

According to Nikhil Ganju, Country Manager, TripAdvisor India “An encouraging proportion of women in India have started to travel by themselves, or in all-women groups. What is discomforting is their preference for overseas destinations as opposed to India, from a safety perspective. It is imperative that this perception of India changes soon, to encourage more women travellers to get out there and experience the country.”

Safety – Still Prime Concern

Among the 63% respondents who have never travelled alone, 33% felt that it was unsafe for a woman to travel alone in India.

Delhi retained its notorious reputation as the most unsafe city amongst the top 10 Indian cities polled*. 95% respondents in 2014 felt so v/s 84% in 2013. Kolkata (64%) and Jaipur (53%) ranked 2nd and 3rd respectively.

The top 3 cities in India voted the safest for women travellers to travel to include Ahmedabad (86%), Pune (84%) and Bangalore (81%). Mumbai (72%) has dropped to the 5th spot this year from the number 1 position in 2013.

Despite safety being a prime concern, over 51% respondents were not aware that hotels in India and abroad have floors exclusively for women. Yet given a choice over 72% women would like to stay at such hotels while travelling solo or in an all women group.

Travelling Solo vs Travelling in a Group of Women

Out of 37% respondents who have travelled ‘solo’, 56% said they liked travelling alone and will continue to do so in the future. 53% said they travel alone only to destinations (India or abroad) that are perceived as ‘safe’

Out of the 47% respondents who have travelled as part of a ‘group of women’, 59% said it was much more fun travelling in a group than travelling solo. 53% said they liked travelling in a women-only group and will continue to do so in the future and 35% responded that it makes them feel safer.

However, out of the 53% respondents who have never travelled as part of a ‘group of women’, 31% said the main reason was that it did not allow them the flexibility to plan their itinerary as per their wishes. 19% said they did not travel as part of a group because of the possibility of conflicting interests.

The top activities that the women travellers engaged in are as follows:

Another interesting finding to have emerged is that activities such as spiritual courses and yoga retreats are preferred more (almost 3 times over)by solo women travelers as opposed to women travelling in a group.

o   Spiritual courses and yoga retreats got 18% votes each from solo women travelers whereas respondents travelling as part of an all-women group voted just 7% in favour of the two activities

For solo travellers other preferred activities include ‘Festivals-music/literature’ (29%), ‘Health/Wellness’ (24%), ‘Light Adventure-camping, hiking’ (23%)

For women travelling as a group other preferred activities include ‘Sightseeing-Eco tours/Village tours’ (28%), ‘Light Adventure-camping, hiking’ (39%), ‘Festivals-music/literature’ (20%), ‘Cruise/House Boat’ (20%),

Tech-enabled

It was surprising to note that only 16% women use the ‘women safety applications’ that available.

The Demographics

The survey saw a mix of respondents with majority being ‘working professionals’ followed by ‘self employed’ and ‘homemakers’.

40% of the respondents were in the age group of 25-35 years followed by 27% in the 35-45 years and 17% in the 45-55 years bracket