Making women a priority

It is a critical moment for women in adventure travel. The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated much of the tourism industry around the world, with the worst impacts being felt by small organizations and especially, by women.

More than?5.4 million women?have lost their jobs due to the pandemic, nearly 1 million more jobs than men. The net of some of these losses has fallen to women who worked in the travel and tourism industry and had been on the ascent, both in participation in the workforce and in rising pay. But if the travel industry is intent on rebuilding from the ground up, then it must reconstruct with women, who - despite being a majority of travelers and comprising the lion’s share of the tourism workforce - are still largely treated as novelty and niche.

Black women are one of the fastest - growing travel groups and in China, which has the world’s largest outbound travel market,?women travel and spend significantly more while traveling?than men. Although there are?already?four women solo travelers for every single male traveler. Searches for “solo female travel” increased sixfold in the four years preceding the COVID pandemic, according to?Google Trends and Pinterest which has seen a 350 percent increase in women “pinning” solo trips since 2014.

“Women’s travel is not a cute little segment of the market—it’s almost the entire market,” says Beth Santos, founder and CEO of?Wanderful, a membership-based women’s travel community. “And every time we go on a trip, we spend hundreds, thousands of dollars. There are not many other industries where every time you engage with it you drop these sums of money.“

About 150 years ago, Lucy Walker was the first woman to reach the summit of the Matterhorn - neither the gloating of men at the time nor the voluminous skirt she had to wear to the climb could stop her. But even today, female guides are in the minority.

Although women represent 55% of the workforce in the tourism sector, only 20% of women hold management positions. Even more striking is the fact that only 8% hold positions of high responsibility.?

At IC Bellagio we are for the most part a female team driven by an exclusively female management team. A significant number of our partners, guides and collaborators are women. Last month we had the privilege of being invited to Passalacqua, the newest 18th century gem on Lake Como, just before their official opening. It is a family run hotel and masterfully orchestrated by Valentina De Santis (think Grand Hotel Tremezzo). 3,5 years of reconstruction and a significant financial investment were managed by her and we would not hesitate to recommend this spot for your next dream vacation in Italy.?