Reader Survey Results: Here's What You Had to Say

Every year you tell us what you want more of on Solo Traveler and every year a new adventure begins as we try to meet your needs, have fun, and travel solo!

You are amazing! We received 1118 responses to our 2018 Reader Survey.

That’s a huge number!

We really appreciate you taking the time to give us your feedback because we are a small team and we have to use our time wisely. With this kind of help, we can.

Based on feedback in previous years, we have identified our three priorities as:

Inspiration
Information
Advocacy

We try to make sure that every decision we make, every post we publish and every project we take on serves at least one of these priorities. We are fortunate to have had a sponsor for this year’s survey. Just You, a tour company that specializes exclusively in solo travel. This year’s Reader Survey will help us fine tune our work in an effort to deliver what you need.

We were so pleased to learn that over 75% of respondents have enjoyed specific benefits from Solo Traveler.

Table of Contents

Knowing More Helps Us Help You: Here’s How

In past years the reader survey was a mere 10 questions long. This year we expanded it to 27 questions and so many of you hung in there right to the end giving us lots of information to work with.

Thank you!

One of the reasons for the more detailed questions was to help us with our advocacy role. The better we know you the more companies we can convince to treat solo travelers well. This, after all, is our mission. It was the rationale behind the Solo Travel Awards and why we publish the Solo Travel Deals page and mail the Deals Advisory (sign up in the green bar above) every month.

I’ll be publishing a post on the statistics and demographics of solo travelers soon but this post is all about you – what you want more of from us.

What You Want More of From Solo Traveler

As you can see from this graph, all topics are just about of equal interest.

The kind of articles you want more of. We gave you four choices and you ranked them in this order.

How-to advice
Inspirational stories
Money-wise advice
Safety advice

This was quite different from last year when inspirational stories was fourth and money-wise advice second. That said, they were all popular with the lowest being 18% and the highest 33%. We’ll continue to provide a wide range of information on all topics related to solo travel.

What do solo travelers want more of from the travel sector? Again, this year, it all comes down to money. Solo travelers are tired of being penalized for traveling alone.

Tours and hotels with products for solo travelers top the list of what solo travelers want more of. Then comes the issue of the single supplement. It all points to the fact that solo travelers are still frustrated by the financial penalty they endure for traveling alone.

When do you like to travel solo? It’s great to see that our readers are taking advantage of the cost savings that are often available during the shoulder seasons. The most popular travel months are:

October
September
May
April

Where do you want to travel next?

Europe
South America
East Asia
Africa
Australia/New Zealand

How far in advance of departure do you start planning your trip?

6 months
1 year
3 months
1-2 months
weeks

Your suggestions for improving Solo Traveler. Here’s what you had to say.

I want the page to post more photos of a city just to inspire people!
More about going off the beaten path.
The tours seem to be all American. Nothing for other countries.
Prices quoted in Canadian $ please.
Include more US cities and towns.
Eco-travel.
Encourage story-sharing via Instagram.
Videos.
Maybe there could be more comprehensive itineraries of offbeat locations, or hidden gems in mainstream tourist locations.
More travel guides for cities! I love those.
Ethical travel.
Travel book reviews.
Easy lists of what to do at destinations.
Travel products – value (price and quality) especially walking shoes (comfort, weather), clothing. I love getting hints, info, how and what to do/not do.
Extracts and teasers such as Facebook posts and also on the blog posts key learning points to allow you to enjoy the site even when having limited time.
More LGBTQ topics.
How to get past language barriers.
Publish the ugly side of solo travel as well as the good. As an independent traveler I know it’s not all rainbows and unicorns out there and the world can be a dodgy place.
More articles from a wider range of people we meet.
More opportunities to highlight followers and give exposure to our readers.
Be inclusive. Too much focus on solo women travelers. Include concerns for gay travelers’ safety and inclusivity.

How you engage with Solo Traveler: These are the top four ways that people engage with the information we share.

You’re a member of the Solo Travel Society on Facebook.
You comment on the site.
You share posts on the site with friends.
You forward Solo Traveler emails to friends.

Thanks for all your interaction. Every time you do we get a better feel for the community and new ideas for what we should do next.

Some Reader Survey Responses Gave Me Shivers

Sometimes we’re helpful to you. Just as often, perhaps more often, it’s members of the Solo Traveler community that deliver the information and inspiration you need. Either way, we’re happy you have been helped.

When we opened up a question on the reader survey for you to say anything you wanted, you had some suggestions and also many kind words, some of which gave me shivers. Here they are, in italics are my responses.

My first trip was to Elephant Nature Park, in Thailand. An idea from one of your followers. – I love how readers support each other, even without knowing it.
Your email newsletters are the perfect amount of communication and have all the information I want! I really appreciate all the work and passion you put into the newsletters, and I love browsing your website! – Wow. Thanks!
More is better, to make solo travel an accepted mainstream activity rather than an aberration. – That’s part of our mission!
Your site is very helpful for some of my research – but wish there was more information on options that meet my budget constraints; tours geared to single travelers mainly. – We’ll keep working on it. We want to make solo travel affordable for all.
I find the Solo Travel website encouraging and inspirational. – We’re glad because that’s exactly what we want to achieve.
I love that articles on the site are updated. Would love more Facebook interaction posts i.e. questions for travelers to answer. Answers from the community are great. Good idea!
I really enjoy the variety of destinations and travel tips for a safe, enjoyable trip. – Anything to help people travel more and safely.
I read your emails religiously and your blog posts, but I never thought to look for your Instagram or Pinterest accounts. Maybe adding links to the bottom of your emails would help spread the word on your other social media accounts? Otherwise, thank you again for being the best location for solo travel confidence and deals! – Great idea. Thanks!
Keep rocking it! – We will!

Sometimes You Made Me Smile

We won’t be able to satisfy everyone’s needs. There are just too many opinions out there. For example, these two comments on improving the site came one after the other.