Analysis of solo travel experiences of women and men in the context of gender

Gender relations, which shape the ways in which social life is experienced, also have a direct impact on the leisure experiences of women and men. Within the scope of the study, it has been aimed to investigate the differences and similarities in these experiences by examining the solo travel experiences of women and men shaped by patriarchal social arrangements. Focusing on how the solo travel process is influenced by socially constructed norms of femininity and masculinity, this doctoral thesis primarily examines studies on tourist experience, tourist typologies, and solo travel experience. Within the framework of previous studies, the gendered dimensions of experience have been revealed by considering the relationship between solo travel and gender. The prominent components of the solo travel experience have been explained in detail and the concepts of masculine and feminine dimensions of tourism reconstructed in the context of gender have been emphasized. Qualitative research method has been adopted in this study which was carried out with the aim of analyzing the gender dimension of solo travel experiences of women and men. With the snowball sampling technique, 46 interviewees, including 26 women and 20 men who had previously traveled alone were reached and in-depth interviews were conducted. Interview data were analyzed by coding in the MAXQDA Analytics Pro 2020 program. As a result of the data obtained within the scope of this doctoral thesis, in which the experiential dimensions of solo travel are discussed in a way that includes both women and men, unlike the previous studies on the subject; it has emerged that the gender-based spatio-temporal constraints encountered in daily life have a significant impact on the solo travel processes; the geography of fear, which is constantly reproduced by the patriarchal control system, shapes the mobility of women during travel through security concerns and socially, solo travel is structured as a gendered activity.