Tour Operators Up Offerings for Solo Travelers

25.08.2023 - 14:35 / skift.com / Selene Brophy

The numbers show solo travel is expected to increase in the year ahead while tour operators push to provide enhanced flexibility for single travelers, many of whom take trips in small groups.

Travel search engine Kayak’s data shows searches for single-traveler flights are 36 percent higher for 2023 travel than in 2022. While a survey by Skyscanner, a Kayak rival, indicates one in two travelers (54 percent) are considering escaping solo in 2023, with 65 percent choosing to go their own way because family and friends don’t share their travel interests.

Divorcees (78 percent) ranked among the highest in the Skyscanner survey in their readiness to embark on a solo vacation in 2023, and look set to establish a new trend of travelers who are “solo and self-focused.”

However, mental health wellness is another driver in the solo travel boom, according to Skyscanner. Taking time for themselves is top of mind, with 71 percent of U.S. travelers citing a solo travel trip as important in this regard. And “four to six days is deemed the perfect duration,” the survey found.

The desire for experiences tailored to their own wants and needs, together with the fluidity to change plans at a whim, is seeing solo travelers spending more on travel, too.

TravelInsurance.com data detailed that solo travelers spent more on a vacation than the per person cost of a multi-traveler trip – with an average of $2,600 per trip for a solo traveler versus $2,200 per person for a multi-traveler trip. The company’s spend data was for travel undertaken in 2022, including purchases made in 2021 for the next year.

Solo travelers are also more likely to take extended trips, “with an average trip length of 19 days versus multi-traveler trips, with an average of 13 days,” the company found.

Kimberly Stirdivant Wason, who oversees destination and distribution partnerships for TourRadar, a tour operator with many solo travel itineraries, said the platform is attractive to solo travelers because of its commitment to price transparency. Single supplements can add 20 percent to the overall cost.

“TourRadar highlights the total prices early, sharing the group cancellation in case of a group tour, and the room types available to them,” Wason said.

Wason added that agents find the platform beneficial because it offers thousands of tours with no single supplements.

WeRoad, a small group tours company, is seeing solo travelers gravitate to its flexible model, with a 65 percent repeat booking rate, the company claimed.

Volunteer travel coordinators, who have not visited the destination, run some of the tours, and this contributes to the flexibility.

WeRoad CEO Andrea D’Amico said the company ensures due diligence is in place but that the model of a