-
Dubai institutes women-only beach days; separates tourists areas from locals
DestinationsFrom today Dubai will offer two days each a week at two prime beach parks exclusively for women — with female tourists and local residents separated to accommodate religious and cultural differences in swimwear. No males aged above four will be allowed entry in either the Jumeirah Beach Park or Al Mamzar Beach Park on [...]
-
India’s tourism minister: foreign arrivals actually went up 2 percent in Jan-Feb
DestinationsA fatal gang rape in New Delhi didn’t deter Germans Carolina De Paolo and Canan Wahner from traveling to India for a six-week tour. The attack was awful, but there is crime everywhere, they figured, and they’d take precautions. Then a man sidled up to Wahner on a train to Goa and ran his hand [...]
-
Women tourists to India down 35 percent since Delhi gang rape
DestinationsWomen travelers have turned their back on India after the notorious gang rape and murder of a Delhi student in December highlighted the scale of sexual violence in the country. A survey by Indian chambers of commerce found a 35 per cent decline in the numbers of female foreign tourists since the 23 year girl [...]
-
India’s leaders need to prove they’re serious about protecting women and women tourists
DestinationsThis week in Singapore, a young woman told me how she had put off a long-dreamed of trip to India. “I’d been hoping to go for a spiritual retreat but then there was all that stuff with the rape case,” she said. “So instead, I planned a trip with my family to Thailand.” On Tuesday, [...]
-
After arrests over Swiss tourist rape in India, questions on women’s safety abound
DestinationsPolice said they arrested five men Sunday in connection with the gang rape of a Swiss woman who was attacked in central India while on a cycling vacation with her husband. All five men admitted to the attack, which occurred Friday night as the woman and her husband camped out in a forest in Datia [...]
-
Indian tourism officials want female travelers to think visiting India is safe
DestinationsIn December, I watched a glorious three-minute ad promoting travel across India. In it, India looks, well, incredible, as promised, and a tourist jaunts from the Himalayas to Kerala and beyond. The visitor is ethnically ambiguous, traveling alone—and female. I loved the scenic vistas, but couldn’t quite grasp how she did it. Was she safe? Were shorts [...]
-
Opinion: Why solo travel is still safe, no matter what happened in Istanbul
Destinations… I was saddened when I heard that Sarai Sierra, a 33-year-old American on her first vacation outside the USA, had been found dead in Istanbul, Turkey — and shocked when I read the subsequent reactions condemning journeys by solo women as naive, misguided or both. The circumstances surrounding the budding photographer’s death, including reports [...]
-
Analysis: Do women have a place at U.S. airlines outside of stewarding?
TransportVirgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson recently became the first LinkedIn Influencer to have 1 million followers, and in the interview commemorating that achievement he touched on the role of women in the boardroom. Branson encouraged companies to strive for a true 50-50 split of men and women on their boards. The absence of women in leadership [...]
-
British Airways surveys women and finds they don’t enjoy spontaneous trips
TransportWomen may claim that they desire spontaneity from their man, but a study suggests they actually want eight days’ notice of any “surprise” trip.
Three out of five women in the survey confessed to hating surprises and a third said they would hate i…
-
Whose responsibility is it to protect women who travel through CouchSurfing.com?
RoomsAccording to CouchSurfing’s policies, reporting that a user has attempted sexual assault is not enough to ban him or her from the community. “Because we are not there to witness events, we rely on members to talk about their experience with one another through references,” Safety Team Coordinator Rachel diCerbo eventually responded to Ulto. “We certainly empathize [...]
