Inside the Rise of Solo Luxury Adventure Tourism
Skift Take
Forget millennials. It's their parents who have the money and time to sign up for luxury experiences around the globe. With the aid of digital communications, going alone no longer feels like tragedy but an asset.
The old adage preaches, “It is not where you go, but who you’re with that matters.” But for an aging and affluent generation keen on self-actualization and crossing items off their bucket lists, it is the where, not who, that takes precedence.
“I decided to hike Kilimanjaro solo because it fell on my 50th birthday and, having been a single parent, I found it very symbolic. The strength and fortitude it took to survive was representative of the daily uphill climbs toward a large goal,” said Kristen McCracken, a 50-year-old mother of four who flew to Tanzania alone to hike Mt. Kilimanjaro, arriving at Uhuru Peak on her birthday.
McCracken wasn’t completely alone. She booked through luxury tour operator Abercrombie & Kent and met her 12 companions on arrival — four of whom had also come alone.
“I listened to my friend recount stories from climbing the steepest section of Mt. Kilimanjaro and thought it was a terrifying...and that I should do it. The next morning I called,” said Gay Pollitt, a dentist from Chicago who also traveled to Tanzania alone to celebrate her 50th on the mountain.
Luxury tour operators and hoteliers' data shows solo luxury travel is on the rise.
Abercrombie and Kent experienced a more than 60 percent jump in solo travelers between 2013 and 2017 with an even steeper 25 percent spike year-over-year in 2017. A&K's expediti
