/Singles-go-solo.jpg?tr=w-160%2Ch-90%2Cfo-auto "Singles go solo")
Singles go solo
The single path
The Internet has broken down many barriers, chief of which is fear of the unknown. People are less afraid of travelling alone, and further and deeper into new places.
If like me you live in a city in Asia and you find yourself surrounded by more and more single people, either unmarried, divorced or widowed, and living alone, you are not, well, alone.
All trends point to the rise in singlehood especially in Planet Urban and with more than 50% of the world’s population living in urban areas, well, the population of singletons can only rise.
Curious to find out just how many single people there are in the world, I do what comes naturally these days. I googled. And Wiki Answers came back with the number 2,320,644, 660. Not sure how accurate that is, but that’s a pretty good percentage of the 7.046 billion people on the planet.
Euromonitor, a research firm, predicts that the world will add 48 million new solo residents by 2020, a jump of 20%. This means that singletons will be the fastest-growing household group in most parts of the world (see chart).
The trend is of course most marked in the West. As of 2012, half of America’s adults, for instance, were unmarried, up from 22% in 1950. And nearly 15% live by themselves, up from 4%.
The 2011 study, conducted by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research (NIPSSR), revealed that 61% of single men 18 to 34 have no girlfriend. The largest jump in single unmarried men is in the 20 to 24 years old group, increasing 10 percentage points from the last survey five years earlier.
Of the women surveyed, 45% are unmarried, unattached and are happy remaining so for the time being. As with single men, the largest group is in the 20 to 24 year old bracket.
In China, due to the one-child policy and families favouring boys, there are plenty of reports about the single man’s plight. “For Millions of Chinese Men, Lonely Life as “Bare Branch” Looms” are common headlines in the media.
Single men are known as “bare branches”, trees without leaves and there are an estimated 40 to 50 million of them across the nation and it is estimated that an estimated 12-15% of Chinese men will be unable to find a mate within the next seven years.
And it appears that size doesn’t matter because even in tiny Singapore, the proportion of singles is also on the rise – growing from 30% in 2002 to 32% in 2012. The proportion of those divorced or separated also rose from 2.2% to 3.4% in the same period while married persons dropped from 62% to 60%.
It’s rising fastest among the younger set. Among those aged 25-29 years, 79% of males and 59% of females were single in 2012, up from 68% and 44% respectively in 2002.
Both genders in their thirties also remained single in 2012. Among those aged 30-34 years, 38% of males and 25% of females remained single in 2012, compared to the 32% males and 19% for females in 2002.
By and large, the travel industry has recognized this trend. Cox & Kings in the UK, for example, has what it calls “single travellers group tours”. Travel Indochina in the US markets “Solo Vacations to Asia”. In Japan, a new social travel site called Trippiece allows single people to plan and go on trips together.
They travel to pursue their own interests. They want to go back to the same café everyday without being nagged at. They want to go watch birds, catch butterflies, trek that hill – whatever their fancy – without being held back by others.
What does this trend mean for the travel industry who’ve largely marketed to groups, couples and families and which still uses words like “single supplement”?
As the proportion of singles rises, it will mean more people travelling alone or banding together with other singletons to form small groups. The dynamics and needs of these customers are different from other segments and need to be catered to.
They may prefer single accommodation when they travel, not necessarily twin-share. There is a reason they are single, they value their space and solitude. They are independently-minded. They’ve made it on their own thus far in life and travel is another extension of their life.
They travel to pursue their own interests. They want to go back to the same café everyday without being nagged at. They want to go watch birds, catch butterflies, trek that hill – whatever their fancy – without being held back by others.
The Internet has broken down many barriers, chief of which is fear of the unknown. People are less afraid of travelling alone, and further and deeper into new places.
Blogs are full of tips of how to travel safely alone, especially for women. Travel reviews bring familiarity. Social networks breed the possibility of new friendships to be made on the road. Location-based services mean you can seldom get lost. Peer-to-peer sites like AirBnB connect you with locals in foreign locales while limousine or taxi sharing apps like Uber and GrabTaxi take away the pain and fear of local transportation.
It is into this brave new world that the growing legions of single travellers are stepping into – and trust me, they are pretty single-minded about their travels and what they want from their experiences.