Female Business Travelers are poised to make up a significant share of the Business Travel Market. They already control 60% of the wealth in the U.S. and influence 85% of all purchasing decisions. Women are high-tech, mobile, connected, and social. They like to book on the move and represent 58% of online sales. Learning how to attract and retain the loyalty of Female Business Travelers is key for travel brands who want to maintain their competitive edge by getting ahead of this influential trend.
2. Table of contents
About Skift
Skift is a travel intel-
ligence company that
services to professionals
about travel.
Skift is the business of
travel.
About Us 3
Executive Summary 5
Introduction 7
The Female Business Traveler Product 11
Security 11
12
12
Design with the Female Business Traveler In Mind 14
Advertising to Women 16
The Critical Importance of Technology 18
Insights and Strategies 20
Notes and Resources 23
Further Reading 23
About Skift 24
The Rise of Female Business Travelers SKIFT REPORT #18 2014
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3. Women mean business. They control a signiïŹcant portion of the
wealth both within the U.S. and internationally, and control how
that wealth is spent.
Paula Froelich, Editor in Chief of Yahoo Travel and a travel writer on
her blog âA Broad Abroad,â explains that more women are traveling
alone and more women are traveling for business. Speaking to Skift,
she emphasized the growing inïŹuence these female business travel-
lers have in the travel spending decision, not only for themselves, but
for their employees. She also detailed a number of key requirements
women have while traveling for business ,which are shared in this
report.
Chris Nurko, Global Director of FutureBrand, explains that a grow-
ing segment of business travelers are not corporate employees, but
entrepreneurs. He predicts that these up and coming self-service
focused business travelers which he has categorized as âTREP
Travelersâ will be on the rise and require diïŹerent products and
services than their corporate counterparts.
And a signiïŹcant portion of those rising TREPs are women. Accord-
ing to the most recent 2012 Womenâs Report by the Global Entre-
preneurship Monitor (GEM):
Introduction
Women are mobile
even at rest.
Source: Flickr, Luciano
Meirelles
The Rise of Female Business Travelers SKIFT REPORT #18 2014
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4. âą In 2012, an estimated 126 million women were starting or running
new businesses in 67 economies around the world. In addition, an
estimated 98 million were running established businesses.
âą These women are creating jobs for themselves and for others. A
projected 48 million female entrepreneurs and 64 million female
business owners employ one or more people in their businesses.
âą In addition, these women plan to grow their businesses. A pre-
dicted seven million female entrepreneurs and ïŹve million female
established business owners plan to grow their businesses by at
least six employees over the next ïŹve years.
And this, despite the same report highlighting current social limita-
tions and impediments on growth for women entrepreneurs in vari-
ous regions of the world. Even when facing diïŹculties, women are
determined to move forward in business and make their mark.
Travel is an essential element of any business, and the travel indus-
try can beneïŹt by encouraging these rising women entrepreneurs to
travel more often to expand their business reach.
Because, as the GEM report points out, women entrepreneurs are
starting businesses and hiring, the perception they have of particu-
lar travel brands and the comfort and loyalty they feel for a particu-
lar travel services provider will inïŹuence their decision on travel
bookings for their enterprise as a whole.
This reïŹects the importance Froelich placed on loyalty programs when
speaking to Skift. She indicated that women are far more likely to
participate in points-based programs, sign up for credit cards tied into
a travel brand, because they value the membership beneïŹts.
Before the travel industry can cater to the needs of the female busi-
ness traveler, it must understand those needs in depth. To ensure
that we reïŹect those needs as actionable take-aways, we will avoid
the generic term âcomfort.â
The Rise of Female Business Travelers SKIFT REPORT #18 2014
5. Though comfort is mentioned as a consideration by female business
travelers and groups representing them, it is painted with a very
broad brush and is subjective.
Instead of using this problematic term, we will look at concrete ele-
ments of the customer experience which aïŹect how comfortable a
woman feels.
These key factors which, when combined, constitute comfort, con-
sistently came up in conversation with our experts:
âą security
âą reliable and empathic personnel
âą privacy
âą healthy options
âą accurate guides
âą conveniences
âą cleanliness
âą amenities
We should point out that generalizations of any demographic are
no means to establish a branding, product or service strategy. While
women have certain diïŹerent needs from men when they travel for
business, they also have some in common.
The Rise of Female Business Travelers SKIFT REPORT #18 2014
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superstars.