The study found that 77% of female business travellers believe that their company’s travel programmes should take better notice of their gender needs, whilst 70% say travel providers need to try harder to meet those needs.
73.4% say their experiences of travel providers has a direct impact on policy compliance, with 75.3% believing their companies should prioritise suppliers who pay special attention to female travellers. This figure reflects the fact that as many as 31.4% of female business travellers say that they have encountered sexual harassment whilst travelling.
It also revealed that 64% of female business travellers say there are destinations they would not travel to - particularly the Middle East and South America.
Those surveyed came from a wide variety of industry sectors including professional services, healthcare, technology, retail, education and government. Just under half of the 200+ respondents said that they regularly spend four nights or more per month away from their UK homes on business.
The research, conducted with female company managers, directors, CEOs and owners, was supported by Avis Budget, CTI, International SOS, Priority Pass & Virgin Trains.
Carolyn Pearson, Founder & CEO, Maiden-Voyage.com, explained why the report was commissioned. "The prominence of duty of care on the business travel agenda and the increase in the number of women reaching senior positions and a subsequent increase in women travelling on business means there’s never been a better time to look at the issues facing women travellers."
"More and more travel management, HR and travel security communities are now holding their travel suppliers accountable for the gender-specific needs of their travellers. Likewise travel suppliers, in particular some hotels, TMC’s and travel risk management organisations, are pioneering change and responding to the needs of one of their fastest-growing market segments. But, as our report shows, there is still much work to be done"
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