IN a survey released by the world’s largest travel website TripAdvisor, 43 percent of Chinese women have holidayed alone, a number slightly higher than the global average of 41 percent.

    The survey covered 10 countries and regions, including China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, and aimed at exploring women’s travel habits, especially with regards to solo traveling.

    According to the survey, when choosing hotels, 85 percent of Chinese women will compare prices on different travel websites, much higher than the world average of 57 percent. However, 92 percent of women around the world regard online hotel reviews as an important reference while 71 percent of Chinese female travelers do so, which demonstrates that global women travelers attach greater importance to hotel reviews to avoid unsatisfactory accommodation experiences. In contrast, though Chinese women do also check the ratings, they still prefer to be guided by lower prices.

    Interestingly, 84 percent of Chinese women identified trying local food as one of the necessary activities when traveling alone, higher than the global average of 62 percent. Plus, 76 percent of Chinese women and 73 percent of global females will partake in cultural and scenic activities. Surprisingly, only 30 percent of Chinese women list shopping as an indispensable must-do on their solo travel trips, lower than the average of 43 percent.

    TripAdvisor China president Zheng Jiali said, “Globally speaking, solo travel has gradually become a trend among the young generation. And there is no denying that women face the greater challenges of unknown environments by themselves on their solo trips.”

    For most Chinese women traveling alone, they not only focus on the journey but also long for changes that travel can bring about in their minds. Among more than 9,000 respondents scattered around the world, a majority spoke highly of independent trips that have triggered significant changes in themselves, with 36 percent saying they have learned about different cultures, 43 percent expressing that they are more confident than before and 56 percent feeling they have become more independent. (SD-Agencies)