The Women-Led Tour Operators That Grew From Travel Communities on Social Media

 Concerns about safety and not having someone in your daily life who wants to travel when or how you want drive some travel communities online.

Tony Carne, Skift Covid has clearly been a disaster for travel agencies, but not everyone has suffered equally. Travel communities that have formed on social media platforms such as Facebook, Tik Tok and Instagram have seen a substantial increase in membership during the pandemic, even when travel was not possible. But are these true travel businesses taking market share from incumbents, or are they growing the market by filling a void? To learn more, I set out to speak with some of the individuals who run these organizations. One of the things I noticed was how important this community was to the leaders of each group, something that sets them apart from traditional tour operators. They all started as a safe place to meet online, chat about travel and get information about destinations. "We have travel products as a means to support the community, not as the only way," said Mar Pages, the mastermind behind Solo Female Travelers, which has more than 188,000 members on Facebook. Meanwhile, Haley Woods, founder of Girls LOVE Travel, said her group started going on trips because her community wanted to. Additionally, the communities I've discovered appeal mainly to women. Three of them are exclusively female, while the Travel Squad demographic is also heavily female. Pages works hard to make her company's tours as close to 100 percent female as possible. “No tour guide, no tour,” she said. But it's not just a guide. According to the company, they are all hotel owners, drivers, even porters on Mount Kilimanjaro. Solo female travelers also conduct research on the safety of destinations purely from the perspective of solo female travelers and publish an index that is now referenced by the US State Department in travel advisories. The hazards are different [than] those faced by other travelers when a woman travels alone, according to Pages. These communities attract like-minded individuals, especially those who don't have anyone in their daily lives or regular social circles with the same desire to travel as they do. People in our neighborhood worry that they won't run into anyone outside if they go alone and realize that it's preferable to do things with a group of pals, stated Alex Merritt, creator of The Travel Squad, which launched during the pandemic and now has a Facebook roughly 69,000 members. "We address this issue by matching them up with like-minded individuals prior to their trip Although their communities are growing, these companies still have a long way to go when it comes to raising funds and generating revenue. But they are working hard to engage booking platforms to boost their journeys. Girls Love Travel and Solo Female Traveler use WeTravel and YouLi booking platforms to sell their group stays. Meanwhile, Merritt and The Travel Squad are considering launching an app as the company is in the middle of a seed funding round. Girls Love Travel previously went down this route before abandoning the effort. Lack of technology has not stopped these companies from selling tours. The Travel Squad sold $100,000 of their Luxe Week trips to Bali in 24 hours at the end of April this year, while Girls Love Travel took 130 members on two cruises down to Antarctica during the 2018-2019 season. That would be a monthly income of $1 million, even at the rock bottom prices of Antarctica. However, these communities are still navigating a murky post-pandemic environment. Amanda Black, creator of the Solo Female Traveler Network, said her group wants to return to pre-pandemic metrics before trying to raise money next year. Her community - as well as The Travel Squad - are the only ones who have really discussed ambitions to become big players in the travel industry. We don't want to be the next Intrepid, Pages said. "We want to do really well for our community and for running a business built on the principles of supporting women's empowerment." Meanwhile, Woods acknowledged that the vagaries of Facebook's algorithms could help make the future of her community uncertain. "It could all end tomorrow," Woods said. "Right now, I'm glad we have this place to connect and support."