“Invisible no more,” is the new rallying cry of women over 50 who are becoming the fastest-growing travel demographic in North America.
It’s also the title of a new survey called “Invisible No More: The Ageless Adventuress.” Published by JourneyWoman, in partnership with Collette Travel, Intrepid Travel and Aurora Expeditions, the survey asked 1,630 women about their travel preferences, spending, preferred destinations, purchasing habits and more.
Two key takeaways are that 61% of these women believe that solo travel — independently and in a group — is the way to go, while a whopping 78% feel the single supplement is the main thing standing in their way.
“I hope someday we never hear this word again,” JourneyWoman CEO Carolyn Ray said of single supplements during a 18MAR launch event. “But this came in as the number one reason why women sometimes don’t even try to travel solo. And it’s not necessarily even in a group, it’s just they hear from others that it’s going to cost them more to travel solo and they don’t want to do it then. They’ll just stay home.”
The launch — at Intrepid’s Spadina Avenue office — included wine, charcuterie and a panel discussion. Led by Ray, panelists included Canadian author and solo traveller Joyce Perrin, Intrepid’s General Manager for Morocco Hala Benkhaldoun and Intrepid’s Head of Marketing for North America Tara McCallum.
“It’s never too late to start your adventures,” said Perrin, who has visited more than 150 countries, and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, since turning 50. “A smile is a smile in any language, especially when you smile with your eyes,” added the 88-year-old powerhouse, who just received the 2025 JourneyWoman Evelyn Hannon Award.
Hannon founded JourneyWoman in Toronto as the world’s first solo female travel resource in 1994 at a time when some women feared travelling alone and lacked female mentors. After she died, Ray (who is friends with Hannon’s famous daughter Erica Ehm) acquired the company in 2019.
What began as a newsletter sold at bookstores is now one of the world’s most respected women’s travel websites. JourneyWoman collaborates with destinations and travel companies to encourage women-friendly travel, hosts the world’s largest Women’s Travel Directory, has a paid newsletter, monthly magazine, awards and speaker’s bureau.
“So we’ve been looking at all kinds of ways to make some noise about older women in travel,” said Ray. “Now women are living until they’re 100 years old and we’re active, we’re healthy and we want to get out there and see the world.”
“Invisible No More” reflects the value of women from Generation X, Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation. More key points include:
- This market will more than double from USD$245 billion in 2025 to USD$519 billion by 2035 in the U.S. and Canada.
- Spending increases with age, with the 65-74 segment being the most affluent.
- Most respondents (46%) are 65-74, while 26% are 55-64 and 20% are 75+.
- 98% said they were the decision maker in their household.
- Most (67%) self-identify as solo travellers, with 41% preferring to travel solo on their own and 27% opting to travel solo in a group.
- In North America, 30% of women 50+ travellers are divorced or separated, 19% are widowed and 16% are single/never married. Of the remainder, 24% of respondents said they are married, 4% are cohabitating and 7% prefer not to answer.
- 65% prefer slow travel and longer trips.
- Respondents were mainly from the U.S. (59%) and Canada (25%) with 8% from Australia and 8% from more than 50 countries.
The report suggests that many prefer to plan and book their own travel. Just 14% use a travel advisor, while 45% don’t and 41% only do sometimes. These women book directly with hotels and airlines, and prefer small boutique hotels and less-travelled destinations.
In the panel, Intrepid detailed how its Women’s Expeditions are booming. Launched in 2018, these all-female groups led by local female guides have grown 46% in 2024, with 2025 bookings up 120% over this time last year.
McCallum said 50+ women were 31% of Intrepid’s overall market in 2024, just under millennial women. She vowed to tackle the single-supplement issue and “find ways to market better, number one, but also find solutions on affordability.”
When asked what she’d like to see change in this lucrative travel space, McCallum said: “I think now is the time — it’s the era of Demi Moore and Pam Anderson coming back and owning their age. I think there’s a lot of momentum in that space and I think we, as marketers, can be a lot more focused and take a little bit more accountability, talk to this age group and this demographic, and I think having numbers, it’s even easier to find new strategies because the numbers don’t lie.”
