Tourism Recreation Research

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The ‘normality of unsafety’- foreign solo female

travellers in India

Toney K. Thomas & Paolo Mura

To cite this article: Toney K. Thomas & Paolo Mura (2018): The ‘normality of
unsafety’- foreign solo female travellers in India, Tourism Recreation Research, DOI:
10.1080/02508281.2018.1494872

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2018.1494872

Published online: 10 Jul 2018.

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TOURISM RECREATION RESEARCH
https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2018.1494872

The ‘normality of unsafety’- foreign solo female travellers in India

Toney K. Thomas and Paolo Mura
Faculty of Hospitality, Food and Leisure Management, Taylor’s University, Subang Jaya, Malaysia

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

India is generally characterised by a high level of crime against women, particularly domestic and Received 11 March 2018
sexual violence. Media, travel-related organisations, and scholarly research have all addressed this Accepted 25 June 2018
issue, especially after a series of rape cases occurred in the country since 2012. Yet, foreign female
KEYWORDS
travellers’ perceptions of safety in India have not been explored in detail by scholars. This is Foreign solo female
particularly true within the context of solo female travel, which is a growing trend in India. This travellers; safety; online
paper attempts to address this knowledge gap by focusing on foreign solo female travellers’ blogs; India
experiences in India. Based on an analysing of 21 foreign solo female travellers’ online blogs, this
paper contends that although tourist spaces and destinations perceived as risky, such as India,
may produce high concerns about safety, they only represent one of the several unsafe spaces
that women have to navigate through in both their mundane and touristy routines. Importantly,
by arguing that solo female travellers have internalised the ‘normality of unsafety’, this paper
questions whether solo female travel is a phenomenon that challenges gendered structures of
power.

Introduction
As female participation in leisure and tourist activities has
increased in the last 15 years (Jordan & Gibson, 2005),
solo female travel has become a more visible and
popular phenomenon (Chiang & Jogaratnam, 2006). A
recent survey conducted by Lonely Planet (Smith,
2018) shows that women account for 67% of the 62,
656 holidays booked by solo travellers. Moreover,
similar surveys (see Mccarthy, 2016) have indicated that
solo travel (for both men and women) is on the rise.
As a growing phenomenon, it is not surprising that
academic work exploring solo female travel has been
conducted in tourism since the end of the 1990s
(Chiang & Jogaratnam, 2006; Jordan & Gibson, 2005;
Wilson & Little, 2005). This work has cast light on the
motivation (Chiang & Jogaratnam, 2006); experiences
of empowerment and resistance (Jordan & Gibson,
2005); perceptions of fear (Wilson & Little, 2005); and
perceptions of risk (Yang, Khoo-Lattimore, & Arcodia,
2018a, 2018b) of solo female travellers. However,
recently Yang et al. (2018a) have highlighted the limit-
ations of the existing body of knowledge, mostly
because it tends to privilege western perspectives and
does not give voice to the ‘Asian Other’. As such, their
work on Asian women’s solo journeys provides an
additional insightful perspective on Asian solo female
travel.
This paper contributes to the emerging body of
knowledge concerning solo female travellers by focusing
on a specific Asian tourist context, namely India. While
certain Asian destinations, such as Thailand, Malaysia
and Singapore, are becoming popular among solo
female travellers (Yang et al., 2018a), scholarly work on
women’s solo travelling experiences in India is limited.
This paucity of information is surprising as recent
surveys (e.g. Smith, 2018) refer to India as the fastest
growing tourist destination for solo female travellers.
Undoubtedly, discussions concerning solo female
travel in India cannot transcend debates on safety and
security as the country has often been regarded as a
dangerous and risky destination, especially for women
(Charlton, 2014). Lozanski (2007), for example, points
out that various forms of sexual harassment (mostly
verbal and physical) are common forms of violence
reported by independent travellers (mainly western
women). Moreover, the series of gang rape cases
reported on the news since 2013 (Pokharel, Wu, & Ben
Westcott, 2018) raises serious concerns about women’s
safety in India, including foreign and local women travel-
ling in the country. The National Crime Record Bureau
(NCRB) reports that rape is the fourth most common
crime in India (NCRB, 2017) and highlights a rapid
growth of rape cases reported in the past 10 years.
Whether and how episodes of women’s domestic

CONTACT Toney K. Thomas tonythomas@taylors.edu.my

© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 T. K. THOMAS AND P. MURA
violence reported on the news may influence solo female
travellers’ perceptions of risk is a subject of debate as
there are no studies exploring the nexus between the
two. Equally uncertain is the link between perceptions
of risk and women’s decision to travel to India. In this
regard, Khan, Chelliah, and Ahmed (2018) found that per-
ceptions of risk may not necessarily discourage women
to travel to India (especially young and educated
women). Yet, it needs to be emphasised that they may
play a role in affecting solo female travellers’ experiences
during the journey. Based on these premises, the aim of
this paper is to explore solo female travellers’ percep-
tions of safety and risk while travelling in India.
Solo female travellers, safety and perceptions
of risk
An in-depth understanding of solo female travellers’ per-
ceptions of safety and risk cannot transcend an analysis
of the gendered nature of tourism and its related
power structures. The nexus between tourism and
gender has implicitly existed since the words ‘tourism’
and ‘tourist’ have begun to be used in the 1700s.
Indeed, the term ‘tourist’ was originally employed to indi-
cate men taking part of ‘tours’ around Europe and, only
at a later stage, the word was used to indicate both
men and women (Graburn & Jafari, 1991). To associate
the word tourist with men – rather than women – was
representative of a traditional gender division of roles
in society and tourism. More specifically, travelling has
usually been associated with ‘masculine ideas about
adventure, pleasure and the exotic’ (Enloe, 1989, p. 20).
Conversely, femininity has been related to images of pas-
sivity and domesticity (Pritchard & Morgan, 2000).
The gendered nature of tourism has also been reiter-
ated by Kinnaird and Hall (1994, p. 5), who have empha-
sised that since tourism is a phenomenon ‘constructed
out of gendered societies’, all its aspects do not trans-
cend societal gendered power structures. In this regard,
since public spaces are socially constructed based on
patriarchal values that favour the masculine gaze (Valen-
tine, 1989) and produce images of women as potential
vulnerable victims (Day, 2001; Koskela, 1997), tourist
spaces and experiences are also shaped by ideologies
that tend to privilege male travellers and disadvantage
women (Chiang & Jogaratnam, 2006). Moreover, Jordan
and Aitchison (2008, p. 334) have emphasised the sexua-
lised nature of tourism spaces, namely contexts in which
women are often portrayed as ‘the sexualised objects of
the gaze, […] habitually represented as passive and sexu-
ally available’. Importantly, the process of gendered con-
struction of tourist spaces reiterates the existence of
crystallised structures of power in which women
usually play a subordinated role as the subjects/objects
of the male gaze (Pritchard, 2001).
Within this scenario, solo female travellers need to
continuously negotiate the social stigma of performing
a travel mode not approved by the social context
(Jordan & Aitchison, 2008). This status quo may lead to
both positive and negative feelings/emotions/experi-
ences for independent women travellers. A part of the lit-
erature has emphasised several positive outcomes for
women partaking in form of solo travel, including a
sense of empowerment, independence and agency
(Yang et al., 2018a). Yet, not surprisingly, less positive
feelings of insecurity and perceptions of fear have
been highlighted in the literature focussing on female
solo travel embodied experiences (Wilson & Little,
2008). Indeed, drawing on Valentine (1989), Wilson and
Little (2008, p. 182) refer to a ‘geography of women’s
travel fear’, which ‘perpetuate[s] the notion that solo
travel is somehow unsafe and, at certain times and in
certain places, inappropriate’. The idea that the fear of
physical assault constitutes (and influences) a substantial
part of the experiences of solo female travellers has been
discussed in several studies, including Chiang and Jogar-
atnam (2006) and Wilson and Little (2008). In this regard,
women’s propensity to avoid risky activities and patterns
of behaviour on holiday have been documented (Pizam,
Reichel, & Uriely, 2001).
Despite this, McNamara and Prideaux (2010) provide a
different perspective as their study on independent
women travellers in Tropical North Queensland, Austra-
lia, challenges the idea of solo female travellers as
fearful and unadventurous. More specifically, their work
portrayed solo female travellers as partaking in a
variety of risky activities and experiences. However, it is
important to acknowledge that the specific physical
and socio-cultural context, as well as travellers’ familiarity
with the context, play an important role in influencing
perceptions of fear and risk. Indeed, ‘vulnerability may
be greater in an unfamiliar destination whose norms
and values are distinct from the tourists’ own’ (Brown &
Osman, 2017, p. 14). It is important, thus, to carry out
research on solo female travellers’ experiences in
different tourist spaces, especially in contexts that may
be perceived as unfamiliar and dangerous, such as India.
Solo female travellers in India and safety
India records one of the highest numbers of rape cases
each year. Discussion on such crime against women
are captured in academic journals, newspapers, official
government websites as well as social media. According
to Livne (2015, p. 2), ‘in India, rape, sexual assault, phys-
ical and verbal abuse become especially pervasive given

their strongly roots in India’s history and societal norms’.
Data released by the National Crime Record Bureau
(NCRB) show that an average of 95 women are raped
in India every day and crimes against women increased
by 34 percent over the last four years until (Salve,
2016). Datta (2016) also notes that sexual violence
against women in India has attained alarming pro-
portions. Indeed, according to the Indian Express, over
34,600 cases of rape were reported across the country
in 2015 (PTI, 2016). Despite these reports, the crime
rate against women in India increased the following
year. This indicates that any sort of enforcement exercise
to reduce the impact of crime against women was not
effective.
Although the image of India conveys several different
aspects, including mysticism, political instability, grind-
ing poverty, lack of social services and corruption
(Chaudhary, 2000), statements concerning the lack of
safety for travellers thus far seem to be dominant
(Tyagi, Dhar, & Sharma, 2016). In this respect, issues of
safety concerning female travellers in India have also
been debated. The 1998 United States Official Trade
Guide declared India as a dangerous destination for
women (Chaudhary, 2000). More specifically, cases of
Western women’s sexual harassment by Indian men
have been commonly reported as the predominant
form of violence (Lozanski, 2007). International organis-
ations such as the World Travel and Tourism Council
India Initiative and a Kuwait-based news agency, KUNA,
in conjunction with the UNWTO conference in India in
2014, reported that in India, sexual violence against
foreign women travellers has risen tremendously in the
last 15 years (KUNA, 2013). Despite this, academic
studies exploring female solo travellers’ experiences in
India are still limited.
Methodology
This qualitative paper was driven by an interpretivist
paradigm, whose main beliefs contemplate the existence
of multiple realities and subjective ways of producing
and interpreting knowledge. Moreover, as reflexivity
has been regarded as an important tool to make inter-
pretivist practices and research processes more transpar-
ent (Mura, 2015; Sedgley, Pritchard, & Morgan, 2011), the
researchers acknowledge their situatedness in both the
research process and its outcome. The main author of
this work is an Indian male scholar with an interest on
issues concerning tourism and crime against women in
India. The second author, a Western non-Indian scholar,
has conducted research on gendered identities and gen-
dered perceptions of fear/risk in tourism. We believe that
the composition of the research team provides both
TOURISM RECREATION RESEARCH 3
emic and etic perspectives on India, female travellers
and perceptions of safety.
Since the main objective of this study was to explore
foreign solo female travellers’ perceptions of safety and
risk, the first step of the research process was to identify
a strategy to obtain women’s views. As blogs have
become important sources of empirical material for
social scientists (Wakeford & Cohen, 2008), mainly due
to their propensity to provide rich and in-depth personal
views (Jones & Alony, 2008), we conducted an online
search on Google in January 2018 to identify blogs
about India written by non-Indian female travellers.
More specifically, we employed the keywords ‘solo
female traveller/s’, ‘solo female travel/s’, ‘India’, and
‘blog’. After reviewing the first 100 webpages provided
by the search engine, we excluded the pages that did
not qualify as blogs (e.g. online news), those written by
Indian female travellers (as the focus of the paper is on
foreign travellers), and those that, despite mentioning
the word India, did not have entries on Indian travels.
Moreover, as this paper explores perceptions of safety,
we also excluded those blogs that reported Indian jour-
neys but did not have any information concerning
safety. As an outcome of this selection process, 21
blogs, which were written by 21 foreign solo female tra-
vellers respectively (11 from the UK, 5 from the USA, 2
from Australia, 1 from Canada, 1 from Spain, 1 from
New Zealand, and 1 not declared), were identified as
the main source of the empirical material.
A thematic analysis of the narratives contained in the
blogs was conducted. The two authors coded indepen-
dently the empirical material and organised it into hom-
ogenous categories. At this stage, the traditional forms of
coding, namely open, axial and selective (Strauss &
Corbin, 1990), were employed. This led to the generation
of overarching emergent themes, which were then dis-
cussed by the two authors in order to find consensus
on diverging interpretations. During this process, exist-
ing studies concerning solo female travellers and percep-
tions of safety and risk were also referred to. This
contributed to refine the main emerging themes and
relate them to the existing literature.
Narratives from the blogs
Telling stories about Indian journeys –
challenging yet rewording
The analysis of the blogs provides an overview on how
India is perceived as a destination by foreign solo
female travellers. With few exceptions, overall bloggers
referred to India as a ‘challenging’ yet ‘rewarding’
country due to its diverse and unique living culture:
4 T. K. THOMAS AND P. MURA
I am going to be honest, India is not a smooth country to
travel around but it is the most rewarding and can offer
you something that other countries simply cannot (B10)
I won’t lie, it isn’t the easiest country to travel around on
your own but with these challenges come incredible
moments that you can learn so much from. The cultural
differences, the people and the beauty that lies around
you both shape and make your time in India so much
more rewarding than any other country I’ve travelled
to alone (B9)
Because I want to be honest with you – lest my spate of
posts gushing about Goa lead you to think otherwise,
India has not been easy. But the beauty of India – a
beauty I could talk about all day (and nearly have) – is
that the lows are always met by highs, and that feelings
of frustration and failure are always overshadowed by
moments of incredible inspiration (B1).
The possibility to be exposed to socio-cultural practices
that are perceived as contradictory and very different
from those of the country of origin allows female travel-
lers to face intense experiences, which, even if at times
could be negative, are perceived as ‘life changing’ as
they often pave the way for moments of introspection,
self-discovery and growth:
For me, backpacking India was a life-changing experi-
ence and I am sure India has this effect on most travel-
lers! (B11)
The times I felt the most helpless and freaked out were
often followed by the most wonderful and memorable
experiences of my whole trip. And the learning curve I
went through as a result of travelling through India by
myself has changed me, irrefutably (B16)
Home to over a billion people, India is a country of con-
tradictions – snake charmers and holy men dressed in
loincloths loitering outside internet cafes, and some
of the world’s deepest cultural and religious traditions
prospering amidst extreme poverty and pollution.
Your feelings about India will likely be conflicted as
well. One moment you’ll love it, and the next
moment you’ll be cursing your train for being 12
hours late (B11)
The importance of facing the challenging side of India
(and the value that such a challenge can bring) is
emphasised in all the blogs. Surprisingly, one blogger
also expressed her disappointment as she felt that
her journey in Southern India was not challenging
enough:
Maybe I was prejudiced and I had prepared myself for
the worst, but in a way, I was even disappointed that
everything was so uncomplicated [bold as in the orig-
inal]. I think one of the reasons I traveled to India was
that I was longing for an adventure and, in part, I was
hoping that I would face many more challenges than I
actually did (B17)
Overall, most of the bloggers portrayed their Indian jour-
neys as ‘special’, ‘unique’ (two words highly used in the
blogs) and more challenging than other travel experi-
ences (e.g. previous solo trips), mostly due to their phys-
ical, mental and emotional intensity.
Narratives of physical violence and the tips to
avoid them
Not surprisingly, in all the blogs issues related to safety
are discussed by foreign solo female travellers in relation
to physical violence – which is mainly identified as sexual
assault – and verbal harassment. In this respect, one of
the bloggers decided to make public her personal unfor-
tunate experience of sexual assault by an Indian man
during a journey in Rishikesh (a city in the northern
state of Uttarakhand):
I’d love to be sitting here telling you that India is totally
safe for solo female travellers. That’s unfortunately not
going to happen today … and for quite a number of
years. Decades? Two months on from my experience of
being sexually assaulted in India, this is what needs to
be said (B8).
In reporting the details of this unfortunate and traumatic
episode, blogger B8 recalls that an Indian man grabbed
her while she was walking near a river path and
tackled her to the ground to abuse her physically.
Besides B8, none of the blogs analysed reported per-
sonal experiences of sexual assault. Yet, less intrusive
(but equally disturbing) cases of violence (or patterns
of behaviour that may lead to violence) were experi-
enced by almost all solo female travellers:
I also had one bad experience with a local man who had
the wrong idea about my intentions of being in India
(something which shook me up, but I was left unharmed
and I knew I had to move on) (B7)
Firstly, people stare, they stare a lot. They stare if you’re
covered from head to toe and they’ll stare if you’re
showing a bit of leg. For me, that was one of the major
challenges, because of course you start to wonder (B5).
Do expect frequent gropes and sexual language to be
directed your way, even if you are dressed extremely
conservatively (B11)
Boys will touch your ass or boobs as a dare or to muck
about (B12)
A man attached himself to me as a guide, even after I
declined. When the tour was over he demanded an
insane amount of money and when I said no he got
very angry, screaming and yelling at me. I ended up
giving him some money just to get away from him (B13)
As the excerpts presented above show, violence (or
behaviour that may lead to perceptions of lack of

safety) can vary from staring, touching, whistling, and
verbal intimidations. Importantly, in all the blogs the
possibility that negative episodes like these may
happen was highly contemplated.
Unsurprisingly, in every blog female travellers provide
a list of ‘remedial measures’ and ‘tips’ to avoid or mini-
mise the probability of becoming part of cases of vio-
lence, such as pretending to be married, dressing
properly, avoiding alcohol and drugs, learning self-
defence techniques, and being particularly aware of
the surrounding environment:
I wholeheartedly believe that taking the time to learn Jiu
Jitsu saved my life. It’s one of the best presents you can
give yourself before you hit the road. It doesn’t matter
how small you are. You don’t need big muscles either.
We’ve got this! (B8)
Writing this post hasn’t been easy. But it’s necessary.
Everyone needs to be aware of what is going on but
more than anything, we need to work together for a
change which has been urgently needed for … (B8)
Female travellers should make sure they cover up with a
scarf, especially when heading to religious sites, you
want to blend in and not stand out (B9)
Apart from the resorts and beach towns it’s not respect-
ful to wear short shorts and a tight little top, simple as
that. Some people take offense this and say I should be
able to wear what I want. Unfortunately, it’s not the
case (B10)
Mitigating narratives of violence
Although the blogs underline that concerns about vio-
lence are real for solo female travellers in India, several
bloggers also reported stories and opinions that
somehow mitigate exaggerated accounts of violence.
In this respect, a group of ‘mitigating narratives’ blame
the media for producing exaggeratedly scary portrayals
of India:
For many solo female travellers, India is the scariest place
of all. Why it has become this way is probably a mixture
of the highly publicised Delhi rape case, and a mix of
fearful stories they have heard from other travellers (B7)
India is nowhere near as scary as you think – and it’s a
lovely place to travel solo (B6)
Unfortunately there is a lot of negative press about solo
female travel and women traveling in India. But, I’ve been
traveling around India independently, on a budget and
mostly solo for over 24 months happily and safely […]
India is not as scary as you may have heard! (B4).
I have had a relatively smooth time travelling in India. I
have travelled in India for about 17 months in total,
over the past seven years, and visited 15 states – most
TOURISM RECREATION RESEARCH 5
of it solo. I have taken trains, buses, autorickshaws,
taxis, elephants and motorcycles (as a passenger). I
have been north and south, east and west. I have medi-
tated by the Ganga, swam in the ocean, rode a camel in
the desert and much more. In all that time, I have rarely
felt unsafe (B3).
Importantly, some of the excerpts from the blogs
reported above do not encourage women to deny com-
pletely issues related to safety while travelling solo in
India. Rather, they invite female travellers to question
sensationalised images of the country. As one of the
bloggers pointed out, since India is a big and diverse
country,
… you can’t paint India with one brush. Therefore the
fear instilled in travelling India as a solo female cannot
entirely be justified […] If you really want to experience
India don’t be afraid of its stereotypes and the stories you
hear in the media (B5).
Other ‘mitigating narratives’ propelled the idea that epi-
sodes of violence against women may occur everywhere,
during any trip and in any destination:
The truth is, whether women are stepping out into their
hometown, or flying across the world to a completely
new place, we need to watch our backs wherever we
are. Terrible but true. 35% of women (undoubtedly
more) worldwide have experienced assault in their life-
time. The #MeToo movement is speaking loudly and
clearly about that (B8)
Violence against women is sadly something that occurs
the world over. Whether in the cityscapes of a country
you’ve never thought to visit, or on the street you grew
up on, there will always be tragic incidences like this
(B16)
Overall, these mitigating narratives seem to suggest that
although tourist spaces and unknown destinations, such
as India, may produce high concerns about safety, they
only represent one of the several unsafe spaces that
women have to navigate through in both their
mundane and touristy routines. In other words, India is
just one of the other ‘normal’ unsafe spaces for women.
Discussion
While previous work on solo female travellers and their
perceptions of safety has been conducted by tourism
scholars (Jordan & Aitchison, 2008; McNamara & Pri-
deaux, 2010; Wilson & Little, 2008), this paper focuses
on a destination rarely contemplated in the solo female
travellers’ literature, namely India. India is often per-
ceived as a destination dangerous and unsafe for
female travellers in general, and for solo female travellers
in particular, due to several cases of violence against
women reported yearly in the country (Lucie, 2017).
6 T. K. THOMAS AND P. MURA
Despite this, it is becoming increasingly popular as a solo
female travel destination (Faleiro, 2014).
One of the points emerging from the analysis of the
empirical material concerns the transformative power
of solo travel experiences for women. Indeed, while the
bloggers portrayed India as a challenging destination,
mainly due to its cultural contrasts and vibrant society,
they also emphasised the important role of these
intense experiences (both positive and negative) for
inner growth and better self-esteem. In this respect,
our work supports previous studies (Jordan & Gibson,
2005; McNamara & Prideaux, 2010; Yang et al., 2018a),
which have already emphasised the crucial role of travel-
ling solo for women to reassert an autonomous and
independent identity. Importantly, our analysis also high-
lights that travelling in the specific context of India
seems to contribute to enhance the transformative
effects of the experience. Indeed, the difference
between India and other destinations – in terms of
emotional intensity and number of challenges – was
reported by many bloggers. This also led many female
writers not to recommend India as first trip but rather
to plan a solo trip in the country only after having
gained some experience in other destinations. In this
regard, the bloggers who visited India several times
(those who to a certain extent could be considered as
relatively experienced) seemed to be less concerned
about safety and violence than those reporting their
first solo experiences.
Another important point emerging from the narra-
tives published online is that despite its positive/trans-
formative effects, female solo travellers’ journeys in
India cannot transcend the issue of physical violence.
Indeed, the blogs show that the possibility of being
physically/sexually assaulted is always contemplated
by female travellers. In this respect, although only one
blog reported a case of sexual assault, all the female tra-
vellers had to face some forms of violence during the
trip, including verbal intimidation, stalking, or being
touched. Importantly, although some episodes could
be labelled as ‘minor’ forms of violence (e.g. a group
of men staring at them) and may only occur in
specific tourist destinations within the country (several
bloggers refer to certain destinations within India as
safer than others), they still play a role in jeopardising
women’s self-confidence and influencing patterns of
behaviour (e.g. dressing codes).
Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects discussed
by the bloggers concerns the ‘mitigating narratives’ pro-
duced to lower overly exaggerated accounts of violence
and reassure the readers that India is only one of the
several public spaces unsafe for women. More specifi-
cally, several bloggers argued that issues of safety in
India should not be perceived as extraordinary as they
resemble those that solo female travellers need to be
aware of and face in any other spaces. In other words,
while the blogs reassure women on the safety of India
they also seem to ‘normalise’ issues of violence against
women in tourist and non-tourist spaces. More specifi-
cally, this shows that solo female travellers have interna-
lised the ‘normality of unsafety’. As such, our analysis of
the blogs tends to conceive solo travelling as an oppor-
tunity to reassert (rather than challenge) patriarchal
images of public spaces, which are socially constructed
as masculinised, unsafe and potentially violent for
women (Pain, 1991; Valentine, 1989; Wilson & Little,
2008).
Conclusion
This paper explored foreign solo female travellers’ per-
ceptions of safety in India. Based on an analysis of 21
foreign solo female travellers’ online blogs, this work
contends that although tourist spaces and destinations
perceived as risky, such as India, may produce high con-
cerns about safety, they only represent one of the several
unsafe spaces that women have to navigate through in
both their mundane and touristy routines. Importantly,
by arguing that solo female travellers have internalised
the ‘normality of unsafety’, this paper questions
whether solo female travel is a phenomenon that chal-
lenges gendered structures of power.
Overall, the paper’s contribution to the body of knowl-
edge is two-fold. First, this work expands our under-
standing of solo female travel, an emerging
phenomenon that, with the exceptions of few studies,
has been relatively neglected by tourism scholars.
Second, this paper provides insights into the experiences
of solo female travellers in India, a destination that
despite being perceived as dangerous, is growing in
popularity as solo travel destination.
Although this paper provides an overview of foreign
solo female travellers in India, it also calls for more
research on women’s experiences and perceptions of
safety in both India and other tourist contexts. More
specifically, more research is needed to understand
whether and how women belonging to different socio-
cultural contexts may differ in their experiences and
practices of solo female travel. Additional studies, for
example, could be conducted on specific groups of
female travellers, such as black women and/or female
travellers belonging to different generations. Also,
future research could explore the nexus between dom-
estic violence against Indian women and perceptions
of safety of foreign solo female travellers as currently
the relationship between the two is unclear.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Toney K. Thomas is an Associate Professor in Tourism at Taylor’s
University, Malaysia. He is interested in destination benchmark-
ing, destination development studies and enablers of tourism.
Paolo Mura is an Associate Professor in Tourism at Taylor’s Uni-
versity, Malaysia. He is interested in tourist behaviour, gender
and qualitative research.
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