Chapter 7: Solo Female Travellers: The Underlying Motivation

Female solo travel is one of the fastest-growing market segments. Motivations of solo female travellers are a popular topic of research, and the majority of studies are focused on a specific region, with a prevalence of the Asian and Australian markets. The present study also aims to identify and explain tourist motivation but has a global character: the informants come from almost every country in the world; the Facebook group that was used as a source for collecting qualitative data has nearly 400,000 members. The thematic analysis of comments resulted in the identification of nine motivational factors (nodes): change/breakdown; discover new cultures; freedom and independence; hate people; meet new people/make friends; have fun; no one to travel with; peace and relaxation; self-discovery and actualization. The findings add to the existing literature by identifying a completely new motivation – ‘hate people’, which is connected to introversion and personal traits and provides a more detailed explanation of motivations presented in previous studies.