Tourism in India is helping to empower women by providing unique employment opportunities, reveals the WTM Global Trends Report 2016, in association with Euromonitor International, released today (Tuesday 8 November) at World Travel Market London.
The noticeable trend highlights a more positive attitude to women in the country, which has had to deal with a number of high-profile incidents of crimes against women – both tourists and locals.
Euromonitor International, Head of Travel, Caroline Bremner said: “Tourism is often seen as an ideal entry point for women in India to join the formal economy, by providing access to opportunities and improving quality of life.
“A growing number of companies are offering women-only services or employing women in roles that were previously largely held by men.”
With the safety of female travellers in India in the spotlight, transport companies have started to provide female taxi-driver services. One example is She-taxi, which operates in Kerala for female-only clients, using women-only drivers.
In a bid to satisfy demand, a project called Women on Wheels has been established to boost the number of female breadwinners in the family by training to become professional drivers.
Another project, called Stand Up India, has been launched by the Indian government to supply loans to women to create their own businesses.
And, in celebration of International Women’s Day in 2016, Air India Flight 173 flew from Delhi to San Francisco with an all-female crew, making it the longest flight staffed entirely by women in history.
There has also been a rise in Indian travel clubs and tours for women, such as Women on Wanderlust and Girls on the Go, which organise all-women trips all over the world.
In addition, a number of safety apps have been developed for women in India, such as Ridesafe, which offer tracking, emergency messaging and route deviation detection.
Rural tourism in India can be particularly empowering for women as it has the potential to diversify employment opportunities based on local tourism assets, the report says.
WTM London, Senior Director, Simon Press, said: “Although travel and tourism in India is still male-dominated, it is good to see this is slowly changing through different initiatives and government support.”
WTM London is the event where the travel and tourism industry conducts its business deals. Buyers from the WTM Buyers’ Club have a combined purchasing responsibility of $22.6 billion (£15.8bn) and sign deals at the event worth $3.6 billion (£2.5bn).
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About World Travel Market London
WTM London, the leading global event for the travel industry, is the must-attend three-day business-to-business exhibition for the worldwide travel and tourism industry.
Almost 50,000 senior travel industry professionals, government ministers and international press, embark on ExCeL – London every November to network, negotiate and discover the latest industry opinion and trends at WTM London.
WTM London is the event where the travel industry conducts and concludes its deals. WTM London will generate around £2.5 billion of travel industry contracts.
WTM London is part of Reed Travel Exhibition’s World Travel Market events, which also includes Arabian Travel Market, World Travel Market Latin America and World Travel Market Africa. www.wtmworld.com
Reed Travel Exhibitions
Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE) is the world’s leading provider of exhibitions in the travel and tourism industry. Its wide-ranging portfolio of events around the globe covers leisure travel, luxury travel, meetings, incentives and business travel, as well as golf, ski and spa travel.
RTE, which organises more than 22 events around the world, includes three divisions; World Travel Market, IBTM Events and International Luxury Travel Market.
RTE is a business unit of Reed Exhibitions.
About Reed Exhibitions
Reed Exhibitions is the world’s leading events organiser, with more than 500 events in 43 countries. In 2014 Reed brought together more than seven million event participants from around the world generating billions of dollars in business. Today Reed events are held throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Africa and organised by 41 fully staffed offices. Reed Exhibitions serves 43 industry sectors with trade and consumer events. It is part of the RELX Group plc, a world-leading provider of information solutions for professional customers across industries.
About Euromonitor International
Euromonitor International is the world’s leading provider for global business intelligence and strategic market analysis. We have more than 40 years of experience publishing international market reports, business reference books and online databases on consumer markets.
To receive your free 2016 WTM Global Trends Report copy, please register here: http://go.euromonitor.com/WTM-London-2016.html