Switzerland Tourism Brings Women to the Top
As part of International Women’s Day, Switzerland Tourism (ST) is launching the “100 % Women” initiative with the goal of connecting women and opening up new opportunities for them to enjoy new experiences. This is particularly true in the areas of outdoor and mountain sports, which are especially important during and after the pandemic.
The 100 % Women Peak Challenge aims to have all-women rope teams climb the 48 highest peaks in the Swiss Alps. The Challenge runs from Monday until September 8, 2021. The interactive landing page Peakchallenge.myswitzerland.com accompanies the action and is to be crowned by the summit selfies of the participants.
ST runs the Challenge together with its partners Swiss Alpine Club SAC, Swiss Mountain Guide Association and the Swiss outdoor brand Mammut. Prominent participants include pop singer Beatrice Egli and the first Saudi Arabian female climber on Mount Everest, Raha Moharrak.
Offers from women for women
Together with the tourism industry, ST presents at MySwitzerland.com/women around 230 offers and events that focus on women and a female view of Switzerland. All of the experiences - which last from a few hours to several days - are led by women to give them and their actions a platform and create role models. Around half of the experiences were newly developed for this campaign. A jury of experts selected the offerings according to defined criteria.
One focus is on outdoor offers, which are all "women-only" and take place in women-only groups. Men are also invited to discover Switzerland with a focus on 100 % Women. For example, on one of more than 40 city or cultural tours that are all about women and their work.
Women's travel booming
Why the focus on women? According to Forbes, around 80 percent of travel decisions will be made by women - no matter who they travel with. Seventy-five percent of tourists booking adventure, cultural or nature trips are women between the ages of 20 and 70. National Geographic identified women-only travel as the top travel trend for 2020, with demand evolving from traditional wellness travel to a broad range of interests. In the outdoor sector in particular, ST sees great potential for attracting women as new guests, and for attracting already enthusiastic outdoor sportswomen, such as hikers, to other outdoor activities such as high-altitude tours or biking.
Women-only offers, led by female mountain guides or female guides, would motivate many women to leave their comfort zone together with like-minded people.
Already in February 2020, ST invited the tourism industry to a workshop to talk about female needs in outdoor sports under the guidance of experts. The results are summarized in a guide for the industry.
