Female Business Travelers are poised to make up a significant share of the Business Travel Market. They already control 60% of the wealth in the U.S. and influence 85% of all purchasing decisions. Women are high-tech, mobile, connected, and social. They like to book on the move and represent 58% of online sales. Learning how to attract and retain the loyalty of Female Business Travelers is key for travel brands who want to maintain their competitive edge by getting ahead of this influential trend.

1. The Rise
of Female
Business
Travelers
Female Business Travelers are poised to
SKIFT REPORT
WWW.SKIFT.COM

2. Table of contents
About Skift
Skift is a travel intel-
ligence company that
services to professionals
about travel.
Skift is the business of
travel.
About Us 3
Executive Summary 5
Introduction 7
The Female Business Traveler Product 11
Security 11
12
12
Design with the Female Business Traveler In Mind 14
Advertising to Women 16
The Critical Importance of Technology 18
Insights and Strategies 20
Notes and Resources 23
Further Reading 23
About Skift 24
The Rise of Female Business Travelers SKIFT REPORT #18 2014
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3. Women mean business. They control a significant portion of the
wealth both within the U.S. and internationally, and control how
that wealth is spent.
Paula Froelich, Editor in Chief of Yahoo Travel and a travel writer on
her blog “A Broad Abroad,” explains that more women are traveling
alone and more women are traveling for business. Speaking to Skift,
she emphasized the growing influence these female business travel-
lers have in the travel spending decision, not only for themselves, but
for their employees. She also detailed a number of key requirements
women have while traveling for business ,which are shared in this
report.
Chris Nurko, Global Director of FutureBrand, explains that a grow-
ing segment of business travelers are not corporate employees, but
entrepreneurs. He predicts that these up and coming self-service
focused business travelers which he has categorized as “TREP
Travelers” will be on the rise and require different products and
services than their corporate counterparts.
And a significant portion of those rising TREPs are women. Accord-
ing to the most recent 2012 Women’s Report by the Global Entre-
preneurship Monitor (GEM):
Introduction
Women are mobile
even at rest.
Source: Flickr, Luciano
Meirelles
The Rise of Female Business Travelers SKIFT REPORT #18 2014
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4. • In 2012, an estimated 126 million women were starting or running
new businesses in 67 economies around the world. In addition, an
estimated 98 million were running established businesses.
• These women are creating jobs for themselves and for others. A
projected 48 million female entrepreneurs and 64 million female
business owners employ one or more people in their businesses.
• In addition, these women plan to grow their businesses. A pre-
dicted seven million female entrepreneurs and five million female
established business owners plan to grow their businesses by at
least six employees over the next five years.
And this, despite the same report highlighting current social limita-
tions and impediments on growth for women entrepreneurs in vari-
ous regions of the world. Even when facing difficulties, women are
determined to move forward in business and make their mark.
Travel is an essential element of any business, and the travel indus-
try can benefit by encouraging these rising women entrepreneurs to
travel more often to expand their business reach.
Because, as the GEM report points out, women entrepreneurs are
starting businesses and hiring, the perception they have of particu-
lar travel brands and the comfort and loyalty they feel for a particu-
lar travel services provider will influence their decision on travel
bookings for their enterprise as a whole.
This reflects the importance Froelich placed on loyalty programs when
speaking to Skift. She indicated that women are far more likely to
participate in points-based programs, sign up for credit cards tied into
a travel brand, because they value the membership benefits.
Before the travel industry can cater to the needs of the female busi-
ness traveler, it must understand those needs in depth. To ensure
that we reflect those needs as actionable take-aways, we will avoid
the generic term “comfort.”
The Rise of Female Business Travelers SKIFT REPORT #18 2014

5. Though comfort is mentioned as a consideration by female business
travelers and groups representing them, it is painted with a very
broad brush and is subjective.
Instead of using this problematic term, we will look at concrete ele-
ments of the customer experience which affect how comfortable a
woman feels.
These key factors which, when combined, constitute comfort, con-
sistently came up in conversation with our experts:
• security
• reliable and empathic personnel
• privacy
• healthy options
• accurate guides
• conveniences
• cleanliness
• amenities
We should point out that generalizations of any demographic are
no means to establish a branding, product or service strategy. While
women have certain different needs from men when they travel for
business, they also have some in common.
The Rise of Female Business Travelers SKIFT REPORT #18 2014
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superstars.