The travel landscape is shifting – and women are leading the charge.
According to the latest research, women now make up two-thirds of the global travel population and are travelling more often, more independently and more intentionally. With women expected to control $34 trillion in assets by 2030, female travellers are reshaping what luxury and experience actually mean.
Here’s what hospitality brands need to know – and how to translate these trends into your marketing and brand strategy…
1. Healing retreats – emotional wellness > aesthetic wellness
Wellness is shifting, fast – women are leading the way. It’s no longer all about abs and acai bowls. For many, wellness experiences are about emotional repair and community connection. From burnout and breakups to hormonal changes and grief, travel is becoming a tool for healing and belonging – and it’s not happening in isolation. Instead of meeting down the pub for a wine, people are increasingly spending their time – and money – on communal wellness memberships and experiences. Hotels that meet this moment with substance (not just scented candles and spa menus) are the ones that will truly resonate.
Opportunity for hotels:
- Build content hubs that answer real guest questions: Create an SEO-optimised guides like ‘Best retreats for burnout (UK edition)” or ‘Where to go when you feel like you’ve lost your spark.’ Great for ChatGPT and Google’s new ‘Discussions’ tab.
- Tap into Reddit as a cultural pulse check: Monitor active threads about ‘healing travel’ or ‘solo retreat ideas’ to shape your offering around how guests actually speak and search.
- Train your social media team to speak human-first: Frame wellness as community care, not isolation. A caption like ‘A retreat that reminds you you’re not alone’ will go further than ‘find your zen.’
- Build narrative into your CRM flows: Use newsletters to drip-feed storytelling content – guest interviews, expert Q&As, behind-the-scenes of your wellness team, or ‘what to expect’ guides that reduce anxiety for first-time retreaters.
- Partner with women-led facilitators who bring built-in community and values alignment – they’ll often co-market to aligned audiences, too, so it’s real win-win. The Bothy by Wildsmith work with incredible facilitators.
2. Girl grouping – the rise of grown-up getaways
Forget chaotic getaways where the girlies return bedraggled and vowing ‘I’m never doing shots again’. Today’s group trips are slower, smarter and more emotionally grounded – from all-female hiking retreats to wine tasting in Tuscany.
Opportunity for hotels:
- Create plug-and-play group packages: Host aesthetic dinner parties, private classes, or ‘choose your own adventure’ menus with bookable add-ons. Mix Brussels are absolute best practise when it comes to experience packages.
- Lean into nostalgia and rituals: Build pre-trip anticipation with friendship quiz templates or printable packing checklists that make for group chat gold.
- Use paid social to reach group planners: Target women aged 28-50 who’ve recently saved travel inspiration or are actively engaging with “group trip ideas” content.
- Target girl group search terms on TikTok: Create content showcasing packages, experiences and your destination(s) with user search terms in mind – for example, MM:NT spotlight the fact groups can book out their whole space.
- Update practical website information: Add structured FAQ-style content to your website: ‘Can I book adjoining rooms?’ ‘Do you offer private dining for 6?’ – great for both user experience and GEO.
- Invest time in Reddit: Participate in relevant travel subreddits where group travel planners go for unfiltered advice.
- Launch a group-stay CRM track: Post-departure, offer booking credit to the group organiser or plant seeds for the next stay with a curated ‘where to next?’ guide.
3. New her-izons: adventure meets autonomy
Women across all life stages are embracing high-agency travel: solo treks, surf safaris, extreme cold plunges. What was once considered niche is now normal, with women rewriting the rules of what a holiday should look and feel like.
Opportunity for hotels:
- Create solo-first offers: Curate tailored local adventures, host welcome drinks that help solo guests connect, and design packages that make travelling alone feel effortless.
- Build UGC momentum: Incentivise solo guests to share their experience through storytelling-led giveaways (‘Show us what freedom looks like to you’).
- Target by intent: Run ads specifically segmented to ‘solo female travel’ search behaviours – e.g., ‘best destinations for solo female travellers,’ ‘safe solo holidays,’ ‘transformational trips’
- Build TikTok SEO into your strategy: Think titles like ‘Safest solo stays for women’ or ‘Best wellness hotels for solo female travel’ to hit platform discovery patterns.
- Test niche landing pages: Design pages tailored to solo travel personas (e.g. “’our healing trip starts here’), with trip-builders or packing lists.
- Use guest data to retarget: Past solo travellers = future wellness retreat guests. Serve them deeper experiences, rebook offers, or refer-a-friend codes.
- Think about generative engine optimisation: Ensure your brand appears in responses to ChatGPT queries like ‘best solo hotel retreats in Portugal’ by strengthening your online presence (including your website, socials etc).
- Track what lands: Monitor saves and completion rates on TikTok and Instagram to spot what kind of content is really resonating – then do more of that.
4. Earth mothering – rewilding the family unit
Families – especially mums – are looking for holidays that give their kids less screen time and more purpose. The shift is toward active, educational, values-driven experiences with more and more people seeking to get back to nature (offerings like West Lexham are ideally positioned for this!).
Opportunity for hotels:
- Turn your sustainability efforts into tangible family experiences: Foraging walks, beach clean-ups, or ‘cook what you pick’ garden-to-table sessions – think of experiences you can offer that focus on sustainability (and are highly shareable).
- Create Pinterest-optimised content with search in mind: Titles like ‘Eco-conscious family travel ideas’ or ‘Screen-free family holidays that don’t feel like a compromise’ tap into long-tail interest and save-for-later behaviour.
- Show up where modern parents are searching: Create visual-first content like packing guides, day in the life Reels, or behind-the-scenes videos of your kids’ club approach.
- Launch paid search campaigns around ‘educational travel for families’ and ‘ethical family holidays’.
- Make content that actually adds value: Update or create FAQs, listicles, or local recommendations – the kind of content that gets saved on Instagram, shared in WhatsApp groups, or linked in forum threads when someone asks, “Where should I take the kids this summer?”
- Segment newsletter content for family travellers: Offer tips like ‘5 screen-free activities to reconnect on your next stay’
- Partner with influencer families to show the emotional payoff – the muddy knees, the late-night chats, the ‘makes it all worth it’ moments.
- Offer flexible booking bundles for longer family stays: Then promote them via Meta ads targeting parents – especially those working in education, remote roles, or freelance sectors with built-in flexibility.
5. Souvenir scouting – local, artisan, meaningful
Female travellers are ditching airport duty-free for handmade objects with meaning. They’re bringing home ceramic dishes from Naples, ancestral beadwork from Kenya, and woven textiles from Oaxaca and they want to know the story behind each one.
Opportunity for hotels:
- Use creator marketing to spotlight makers: Invite micro-creators to document the stories behind each piece for TikTok and Instagram Reels e.g from the potter’s wheel to your lobby shelf. Farmhouse Marrakech showcase local and homemade offerings really effectively on their socials.
- Offer product storytelling in-room: Add QR codes linking to short videos or include handwritten postcards that tell the story behind the maker.
- Run limited-edition drops with exclusivity baked in: Collaborate with local makers on ultra-limited collections. Then tease the launch via email, Close Friends lists, or unlockable Reels to reward loyal fans and drive urgency.
- Make your retail discoverable: List your offering on Google Business, Pinterest, and travel forums. And feature it in your booking flow with messaging like: ‘Shop Slow, Buy Local – exclusive to guests.’ The Hoxton allow you to ‘shop’ their items really effectively.
- Bring in creators to deepen the storytelling: Let influencers capture the moment of discovery – whether that’s behind the scenes with a maker or a guest finding a new favourite. Repurpose that content across Reels, paid ads, and emails with SEO-friendly captions like: ‘The handmade ceramics you’ll want to book a flight for.’
- Bridge digital and physical with smart content strategy: Email previews, Pinterest moodboards, TikTok teasers, Meta retargeting – every channel plays a role in turning your shop from hotel afterthought into a reason to book.
Final thought:
The most successful hotel brands over the next five years will be those who can tap into the emotional, aspirational, and values-led mindset of the modern female traveller. Going beyond the typical stereotypes of a female solo traveller, those who will be most successful in creating genuinely engaged, loyal offline and online community will understand the ‘why’ behind the travel.
And increasingly, that “why” is healing, connection, community, identity – not just relaxation.
Research from Citizen Femme x Globetrender’s 2025–2030 Trend Report.
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