Solo travellers come in all different types and the Quebec tourism industry must adapt to attract this booming clientele. Although solo tourists obviously travel alone, they often travel in groups, as contradictory as this may seem. In fact, many travel specialists (tour operators and DMOs) are noticing that solo travellers wanting to experience new places with other people who share their interests now constitute a larger proportion of their group clientele.
Single travellers are a growing market segment. More and more people are single by choice at various stages of life because of marrying later, getting divorced, losing a spouse, etc., contributing to the rise in one-person households:
one-person households account, on average, for 35% of all households in developed countries
in Finland and Norway, this average is about 40% (2011)
in the Netherlands, it is 37% (2011)
in the United States (27% in 2010) and United Kingdom (29% in 2011), the percentages are similar to that in Canada (28% in 2011)
in Quebec, the proportion of one-person households is 32% (2011)
DEFINITIONS, CHARACTERISTICS AND BEHAVIOUR OF SOLO TRAVELLERS
A solo traveller is, by definition, a person travelling alone… but not always! According to Statistics Canada, a person is considered to be “travelling alone” if not accompanied by another member of the same household; for example, people travelling with friends or in a group are considered solo travellers if they are unable to provide any information on the expenditures and activities of the people accompanying them.
With this in mind, researchers from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland have identified four categories of solo travellers:
single-solo: live alone and travel alone
single-group: live alone, but travel in a group of more than six people
collective-solo: live in a multi-person household, but travel alone
collective-group: live with others, but travel without them in a group of more than six people
Here are some characteristics of these different categories (see Table 1):
single people travelling alone or in a group are primarily older women, while those in the other two categories are primarily young men
solo travellers tend to take shorter trips than other travellers, with the exception of the collective-solo category
preferred type of accommodation:
with friends or family (single-solo)
vacation homes (collective-solo)
hotels (the other two segments)
type of trip:
visits with family and friends (single-solo)
city and shopping trips as well as cruises and beach holidays (collective-solo)
sightseeing tours (single-group)
events and sports vacations (collective-group)
The two categories of solo travellers who travel in groups (collective and single) look for travel information from friends and family as well as promotional materials from tour operators