By Angela Criss

While reading a recent issue of Today’s Christian Woman, I found some interesting facts about women and travel. Marlee Ledal stated that women make up 70% of all travel decisions and comprise 75% of those who take nature, adventure or cultural trips. In fact, the average adventure traveler is a 47-year-old female who wears a size 12 dress. The article encourages women to travel and experience life to get away from the stress that many of them face in their jobs and in raising families.
Looking back over my most recent bookings, I realized that this was exactly in line with my sales. Wanting to booking a family to Disney World, the young mother contacted me to make the arrangements. A church group cruise is composed of mostly females and the leader and group co-coordinator is a female. A trip to an all-inclusive in Mexico was purchased by a woman for she and her husband. A group of female teachers are planning a summer getaway to New York City. And, I recently taught a travel workshop at the local college and the participants were (you guessed it) — all females.
Therefore, to make the most of our marketing efforts and expenses to reach this female market, we need to think about their buying habits. For advertising, the ads need to be geared toward females and in places that females will read them.
For example, an ad in the food or lifestyle section of a newspaper might be more effective than in the sports pages. And, we need to be sure to stress the benefits of women taking some time for themselves to travel and get away from the daily grind, or to get a group of friends together for a “girls’ getaway.” Then remind them also to plan some quality time for the entire family to spend together traveling.
Also, be sure to make it easy for females to reach you. Every time I go to my hair salon, the topic turns to travel. They told me they love it when I come in because they can hear about all the fabulous vacations. So I began taking travel brochures with me and leaving them so that clients can browse through them while they wait. My contact information is stamped on the brochures to make it easy to reach me.
Since the female usually makes the decisions, even on the honeymoons that the groom is paying for, be sure to make your services available to couples planning their honeymoons. I have begun working with the local gift shop/florist who does wedding gift registries. Now when couples register at the store, they will receive a bag of brochures and honeymoon materials from me to help them plan their honeymoon.
Another way that you can be of service to the female community is by creating groups of interest for women. I call this a service. Many women (young and old) would like to travel but do not have a companion. Often with groups, you can pair ladies together as roommates on a cruise, saving each a steep single supplement charge.
I have done this with church groups, AARP groups and others. Many would not have had the opportunity to travel if it had not been with the group. Remember, many women’s’ groups are perfect for group cruises, such as the Red Hat Women, Junior Leagues and more.
Targeting the female market is just one more way to give our sales a little lift.

Angela Criss has a B.S. in communications with an emphasis in advertising and a minor in marketing. She has had a myriad of jobs, including marketing director for a manufacturing company, various newspaper jobs and teacher of English for 10 years. She now owns a Home Based travel agency, Criss Travel.