Tour Operators Rework Strategies to Attract Growing Solo Traveler Market
Photo Credit: Young woman taking selfie on bridge in Florence, Italy Getty Images / Lorenzo Antonucci
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Although solo travelers have long been an important market for tour operators, they haven't had specific strategies to boost bookings with this group. But the pandemic is forcing tour operators to reevaluate their tactics, including finding ways to make traveling alone less expensive.
Solo travel is poised for a major boom this year as one in four travelers plan to venture solo in the next six months, which is driving travel companies to launch deals to make their offerings more appealing for those in the lucrative market.
Tour operators are among those companies looking to attract more solo travelers, but what steps are they taking to lure even more customers from a group they've long welcomed on their trips?
They're increasingly launching special deals geared toward the segment and waiving or decreasing expensive single supplements to attract more guests from a market that had been growing prior to the pandemic. Google searches for solo travel increased 131 percent from 2016 to 2019.
"Over the last four years, more and more, we've been seeing that there's been a demand for people traveling solo," said Melissa DaSilva, the U.S. president of
