TRAVEL
It’s a tale as old as time. Or at least the early 00s. The burned-out office worker escapes corporate life to ‘find themselves’ on a farflung island. Or perhaps it’s the story of the divorcee, lost in a city of love and pondering life’s meaning to the beat of a melancholic drone. Yes, the foibles of the female traveller have long been etched into popular culture. A woman, typecast as the lonely soul, is swept into the world of solo travel not by choice, but by circumstance. It was a break-up, after all, that led Eat Pray Love’s Elizabeth Gilbert to discover the sweetness of doing nothing in Rome. And it was a tragedy that drove the author of Wild to walk 1600km along the Pacific Crest Trail in the US.
Lizza, WH Editor-in-Chief
A hop, skip and a few lockdowns later, the urge to fly solo is taking off once again. Searches for ‘solo travel’ rose by 761.5 per cent last year, according reports near double-digit growth of solo travellers now versus pre-Covid times. “After spending so much time at home, we’re increasingly seeing consumers booking solo travel experiences in order to maximise their personal growth and independence,’ says Brielle Saggese, insight strategist at the trend forecasting company WGSN.
