The Solo Traveller Is The Fastest Growing Target For Tourism Worldwide

Even today, most tourism product is promoted on a price based on a twin share, whether it is a resort or hotel, a cruise or even an airline product.

This has been the basis of tourism product development for as long as most of us can remember and

I guess it originated from the sim­ple fact that packaging for two peo­ple bought economies of scale in so many areas, particularly the resort room usage where the second per­son using the same room adds very little to the cost of delivery.

It even extends to the land content in many cases, where a pickup ve­hicle cost is the same for one or two people so the all up cost appears to be a better deal.

Along with this practice comes the dreaded single traveller supple­ment.

Single Traveller Supplement

The single traveller supplement annoys many people and often to the point where they will choose a different product.

The single supplement makes the per person room rate significantly higher than half the twin rate.

Addressing this issue is a compli­cated thing for most hotels and re­sorts.

They do want to get the maximum yield from their, property which having two people in a room does address, because as well as gaining additional revenue from the room with the second person contribu­tion, they have two consumers of all the services they offer at addi­tional cost (restaurant, bar, cafe and other charged services).

If the property was to have every room used by a single person the bottom line would be severely hit.

But there is an opportunity be­cause the modern world has a lot more single people than it had even 15 years ago, with divorce and sepa­ration much more widely accepted and the percentage of younger peo­ple, particularly females, being con­tent to remain single to an older age, or even for a lifetime, the single per­son market has grown substantially.

Add to this the huge increase in single people who have a child or children and you have a mouth wa­tering opportunity if you can ap­peal to the segment.

A number of operators have al­ready changed their marketing to target these people and they are finding that they are reaping huge rewards.

So far it seems to be the packaged tours that are adapting fastest.

There are now a significant num­ber of singles only product out there, focussing on a packaged tour to a series of interesting destina­tions that provide the sort of expe­rience the target group finds attrac­tive.

The price is the same even if you book as a couple so the dreaded sin­gle supplement doesn’t exist.

Operators report that they are get­ting good business from couples for single only product as the packages are attractive to young couples as well.

What sort of responses are the op­erators who are targeting the singles group achieving?

The dedicated cruise products are leading the way in numbers and showing growth in this segment of well over 50 per cent.

The packaged tour operators, who introduced the concept of single only product around three years ago are showing year on year growth of from 20 percent to 50 per cent.

It is reported that 60 per cent of all solo travellers on packages are females.

One of the major tour operators, Intrepid Travel says that at least fifty percent of their customers last year travelled alone across all their products.

There is clearly a significant mar­ket out there of solo tourists.

The term solo tourist is carefully chosen because there are a good per­centage of married people or people in relationships who choose to trav­el alone, for a variety of reasons.

The most often given reason is that one of the couple can’t get time from work to travel, has to study or doesn’t really enjoy travel so the partner chooses to go alone rather than miss out.

What is the single traveller looking for?

They first and foremost want an in­teresting experience, one that they can tell their friends about when they get home and generally one that is good instagramming mate­rial.

They prefer to not be rushed from one place to another and seek to make friends with fellow singles.

They need the safety of numbers and do not want to be the only single in the group.

They find it difficult to build a friendship within a group of cou­ples.

There is a smaller, but never the less significant group that is emerg­ing and that is singles with a child (or children).

This group is biased towards wom­en but there are a significant num­ber of males as well.

This market is not well catered for by the tourism industry and they have special and clear cut needs.

Obviously the safety of the des­tination, both personal safety and general safety, are important be­cause of the children.

They look at available medical ser­vices and want there to be the op­portunity for the children to build friendships with other children be­cause that will remove the need for the adult to constantly take care of the children.

They also need a destination that is relatively close, as the kids do not take well to long flights.

Can Fiji attract the singles market?

It certainly has all the attributes but these need to be promoted.

For women in particular the area of personal safety is important. Des­tinations where there is the danger of political unrest or a high crime rate are not acceptable.

Fiji has plenty of experiences that are attractive to the single market, particularly in the area of soft ad­venture (shark feeding, river safa­ris, diving, sailing, and hiking) and being immersed in a different cul­ture, one that is real and not manu­factured for the tourist, available safe food and clean water.

The one thing Fiji lacks is a repu­tation as a place where there are a significant number of single tour­ists and they will be able to meet and join in with people with their own interests and where they will not feel lonely or isolated.

If we are to succeed in the sin­gles and solo markets we need to promote to the markets and create awareness that the solo tourist is