h THE LEISURE travel
Hotels for
#VIAJOSOLA Voyagers
Solo female travellers are a trending class and hotels are rushing to accommodate this securityconscious demographic with a flurry of features that go beyond hairdryers and make-up mirrors. From Richard Branson’s peephole doors to floors where boys aren’t allowed, Belinda Beckett discovers what’s on offer for today’s #Viajosola voyager.
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new Spanish hashtag erupted across social media last year in a global show of girl power: #Viajosola (‘I travel alone’) was posted by outraged women everywhere after two female backpackers murdered in Ecuador were blamed for their own deaths for travelling in a high-risk country ‘alone’, meaning without a man. #Viajosola has become the mantra of female travellers the world over, defending their right to go it alone. And they’ve been doing just that
in increasing numbers since Julia Roberts’ round-theworld romp to find herself in the 2010 film, Eat, Pray, Love. ‘Women have embraced the wildness and are proving they have the guts to explore the world on their own,’ gushed travel industry website Skift, dubbing 2017 ‘the year of the modern female traveller.’ Meanwhile, the solopreneur boom is adding many more lone women travellers to the mix. But whether on business or holiday, security comes well before scented bath foam on womens’ list of priority hotel services; doubly-so, in the new light of 2018’s post-Weinstein dawn.
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