Women only Tours: Is that the Need of the Hour?

By Anagha Biju

Going on a trip seems so casual these days- weekend getaways are regular affairs for some, others might take occasional trips to places farther away. A Livemint report recorded that there is a very narrow margin between rural and urban community if considering domestic tourism. However, the former indulges in more leisure travel than the latter which travels for health, education, and religious related matters as well. Yet the number of women travelling alone, particularly for leisure, is still a rarity even in urban spaces.  

F5 Escapes is a tour company based in Bangalore customising tours only for women, administered by an all-women team enamored of travel. With numerous initiatives like F5 Escapes operating in India, easing travel for women and breaking the associated stigma, women travel is gaining ground in India. In a conversation with Malini Gowrishankar, Founder/CEO of F5 Escapes, and Akanksha Bumb (Co Founder and COO), though enlightening insights were given into the demands of the sector, challenges that come along, and a lot more, yet it was clearly seen that the services were again highly  limiting. 

Tour companies like these though promoting women to explore on their own are actually shifting attention from the basic need, i.e., to create a society where women are allowed to explore the spaces unmindful of concerns of safety. Travelling in a sanitized environ, following a well packaged itinerary is not the exact form of travel. This is a temporary solution to a problem that has far reaching consequences—can women travel alone anytime, anywhere? The solution offered by ‘women only tour companies’ is not only temporary but highly exclusive- catering to only urban women and that too from a privileged class position who can afford the tour services. 

“We look forward to a day when women do not need any special services at all unless they are elderly or pregnant!” But Gowrishankar and Bumb also agree that such an ideal scenario is yet far away and hence, as of now, even “to see more women being comfortable in our day to day public spaces even if she is alone” would be a great thing. But activities being taken up to promote this vision seem scarce. Despite allowing women to hem tours as tour leads, encouraging women in hospitality services, holding workshops for women travel and safety- again the activities are limited to telling women how to travel. Sensitizing men to encourage their women partners to travel, to allow all women to travel safe, taking up initiatives with governments and agencies to promote healthy travel is seriously lacking. 

Industry thrives on the need of the consumer. But here such an industry rises which thrives and exploits women’s helplessness to travel alone. Under the veil of promising freedom, women are actually further kept chained to companies and itineraries that have to be paid enormously for. Though they try to ensure a gender neutral travel experience by hiring women and men for associated travel needs like taxis and accommodation, yet the very premise on which they promote themselves is by the idea of having a female lead to coordinate the entire group’s activities. By not exposing women to the other gender, they also reinforce the idea of women being safer and better understood by women accomplices. This stems from the deep rooted conditioning that most women are exposed to and now with such moves, the same conditioning gets reiterated. 

Across social strata, irrespective of age, women hold aspirations to travel. The company reaffirms that it is often women who discourage themselves from travel following advices from their fathers or husbands. Hygiene and safety – both play another very important role in making women reluctant to travel in India. By ensuring access to hygienic, safe toilets, safer public spaces, better perception management by programmes with international reach such as Incredible India and other facilities, the government will be a game changer in promoting women travel. “Community and public involvement are what will bring about a transformation in the way the world looks at India as a destination.”  Reduced need for policing and better awareness among the public on being respectful to women on the roads, zero tolerance for invasion of private space, bystander engagement require small individual efforts but can bring out vital and phenomenal changes.

But for such encouraging social situations to emerge, conscious efforts must be taken to promote the same. State tourism departments focus on improving tourist destinations in respective states and even the safety services they implement are catered towards the largely heteronormative family. But provisions to encourage solo women travel, travel for the disabled or other genders are never considered. Such initiatives clearly reflect where the priority of governments lie and then it is inevitable that private companies like F5 Escapes enter the sector to fill in the gap whose services remain largely exclusive to upper class urban women and not the majority others. 

Thus, though such initiatives can be considered positive milestones to encourage women travel and exploring the self it will be our mistake to not think beyond it to envision a society where actually travel and even daily commuting will be easier and healthier for women across social strata.