Featured image: The women 50+ travel market is set to more than double by 2035, according to new research from JourneyWoman | Photo by thanyapatm on Envato

On June 5, JourneyWoman CEO Carolyn Ray and Intrepid North America President Leigh Barnes joined Skift’s Editor-in-Chief Sarah Kopit and Head of Research Seth Borko on The Skift Travel Podcast to talk about the enormous growth in solo travel with women over 50. Skift is a leading news source for travel executives, monitoring the ever-evolving transformation into the future of travel, founded in 2012 by Rafat Ali and Jason Clampet. The name Skift, which means “shift” or “transformation” in Nordic languages, was chosen by Ali and Clampet to highlight the ongoing changes in the future of travel.

This interview focused on JourneyWoman’s study on the women 50+ travel market — “Invisible No More: The Ageless Adventuress”, which was launched in March 2025. The research was supported by Intrepid Travel, as well as Collette Travel and Aurora Expeditions, and provides credible data on the women over 50 travel market for the first time. Over 1600 women participated in the research, which was fielded globally.

During the interview, Ray shared some of the research findings, which show that the women 50+ market, inclusive of solo travel, is growing from US$249B to $519B by 2035, almost equal to the total millennial marketplace.

“It’s my hope that this data provides the travel industry with insights to adapt and change to meet the needs of this growing market,” Ray says. “I’m thrilled that the Skift Travel Podcast invited us to have such an open and candid discussion about transformation at a time when women over 50 feel seen, but not fully understood by the travel industry.”