An Empirical Investigation on Solo Female Travellers in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Over the years, travel for leisure has seen a significant increase of Solo female participation. A Solo female traveller is a free and independent women traveller who is not having anyone available to travel with, at that particular time they make sheer desire or enjoyment of travelling along. The main objective of this study was to identify the behavioural characteristics and travel motivations of Solo female travellers in Sri Lanka. Also, the study discovered the relationship between Solo female travellers’ attitudes & perception and satisfaction related to their holiday stay in Sri Lanka. The study completed with mix research approach based on structured questionnaire survey and structured personal interviews. The respondents were consisted of 50 Solo female travellers and 10 accommodation and travel service providers in the industry. The descriptive statistics and the regression analysis were mainly utilized to analyze the collected data. The findings reflected that Solo female travellers are the self-motivated young travellers who wish to use normal destination facilities. The majority of Solo females expect only budget facilities and their behaviours ordinary same as backpackers. In addition to that, travel motivations of this segment are ‘visit a place that they have not visited before’ and ‘experience new and different lifestyles or traditions’. The regression results indicate that the factors ‘Attraction & Facilities’ and ‘Supportive Services’ have significant impact on Solo female traveller Satisfaction. The factors, such as Accommodation & Food, Infrastructure Facilities and Behaviour of Community, are not significantly impact on Solo female traveller Satisfaction. The findings of the study indicated the need of improvement in all the facilities to match with the requirement of this niche segment. This study provides the useful guidance and accurate information to establish a friendly environment to promote Solo female travel market in Sri Lanka.