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Going It Alone “It was incredibly freeing not to be roped into someone else’s FACE TO FACE:

Backpacker making
schedule or bad mood.”
friends with a yak near
Swiger and Woods aren’t alone. “Solos are a growing
movement, particularly among females in their late 20s and Rakaposhi Base Camp in
Karakoram Mountains,
For an assortment of reasons, more travelers early 30s,” says Tom Marchant, cofounder and owner of the Pakistan
Virtuoso-affiliated travel planning company Black Tomato, PHOTO: © PAOP | DREAMSTIME
choose to journey on their own. BY KATIE MCELVEEN which lists solo travel on its website alongside more traditional
headings like honeymoons and family travel. “Whether they’re
FOUR YEARS AGO, when Los Angeles public relations in a relationship or not, younger people are looking to recali-
executive Sara Swiger decided to take a vacation to brate and find inspiration.”
Poland, Hungary and Austria, she did something she’d Research supports Marchant’s observation for all demo-
never done before: She traveled alone. “I wanted to go graphics: According to the 2015 Visa Global Intentions Study,
somewhere I’d never been,” she says. “Since I had no 24 percent of respondents traveled on their own on their
one to travel with, I went by myself.” most recent leisure trip, up from 13 percent in 2013. Among
The experience turned out better than she could have first-time travelers, 37 percent travel alone, up from 16 percent.
possibly expected. “I found that I was more present and Then there’s the rise in apps like Couchsurfing, Meetup and
paid better attention to details than when I’d traveled The Outbound, which connect visitors with locals who want to
with friends,” she recalls. “I had such a great time that share their communities. Swiger reports meeting one acquain-
even though I’m now in a relationship, I’ve continued to tance who took her on a cycle tour of the city she was visiting.
travel alone from time to time.” “Seeing the city through a local’s eyes completely changed my
Pamela Woods of Columbia, S.C., remembers perception,” she says.
begging people to travel with her to exotic locales. “I As the number of travelers hitting the road on their own
got tired of waiting, so I took off on my own,” she says. continues to rise, travel professionals reach out to this growing

46 globaltravelerusa.com FEBRUARY 2018