Female Travelers Research Articles

Preferences regarding external information sources: a conjoint analysis of visitors to Sardinia, Italy

ABSTRACTUtilizing a conjoint analysis approach, this study aims to examine the relative importance of external information sources for female and male international and domestic travelers utilizing data collected from 719 tourists traveling to Sardinia (Italy). Overall, findings reveal that traditional word-of-mouth (i.e. family and friends), online review sites (e.g. TripAdvisor), and the online search engines are the most important external information sources for both domestic and international travelers. However, differences in importance tourists assign to each external source exist based on type of travel (domestic versus international) and gender (male versus female). For example, while traditional word-of-mouth, online review sites, and search engines are the three most important sources for domestic male travelers, the third most important information source for domestic female travelers is found to be printed tour guides. Contributions to the current body of knowledge and managerial implications are discussed, and suggestions for further research are provided.

Linking transportation and population health to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in transportation injury: Implications for practice and policy

ABSTRACTIn both developing and advanced economies, it is commonly believed that lower income and minority populations are disproportionately at risk of being injured or killed in a motor vehicle crash, especially as pedestrians. However, this risk is rarely quantified with information about exposure. We argue that a combined transportation–population health framework is one way to quantify, and therefore prioritize, equity considerations in transportation safety decision-making. We illustrate this approach with an analysis that compares age-adjusted fatal and nonfatal injury rates per 100 million person-trips by race/ethnicity and sex for motor vehicle occupants, bicyclists, and pedestrians. We found that, per trip, whites are equally safe as pedestrians and motor vehicle occupants, whereas other racial and ethnic groups for whom we have data are less safe when they walk. In addition, black/African-American female motor vehicle occupants and pedestrians have higher inpatient injury risk than female travelers of other races and ethnicities (for whom we had sufficient data). Such differences in transportation injury risk by race and ethnicity warrant deeper analysis to understand the underlying reasons, such as whether certain groups of travelers are exposed to qualitatively different hazards when they travel. We discuss frameworks for including information about injury disparities in decision-making.

Trail-following behavior by males of the wolf spider, Schizocosa ocreata (Hentz)

Male spiders are able to detect and respond to chemical cues deposited by females in the environment. In many species, detection of these chemicals may be the first indication a male has to the presence of a nearby female. In wolf spiders (Lycosidae), which do not produce webs, females leave a trail of silk and chemical cues as they move through the leaf-litter habitat. Males could increase encounter rates with receptive females if they were able to follow these trails. We used behavioral assays to determine whether male Schizocosa ocreata (Hentz) wolf spiders are able to detect and respond to cues resulting from a single-pass trail by a female, and whether they are able to determine the direction of female travel. Our focal males responded to virgin adult female trails with following behavior, but showed no propensity to follow trails from other conspecifics (subadult females or males). While males were able to follow a female trail, our observations and analysis indicates that they are not able to determine trail directionality.

English

In order to increase efficiency and sustainability, it is of crucial importance to have an in depth understanding and investigation of travellers’ behaviour, preferences, attitudes and choices. In this context, this paper investigates car-sharing as a mode for travel for work trips in Tabuk city for both male and female travellers. Tabuk is one of the regional capitals situated in north-western Saudi Arabia, which has recently generated enormous intra- and inter-city transportation demand due its rapid economic growth and due to recent oil and gas based growth economy in recent years. Investigation of the characteristics of trip makers which impact on the decision of selecting car-sharing as a mode of travel is presented for each of the males and females. In this context, this paper investigates the feasibility of car sharing schemes in Saudi Arabia and the impacts of gender on the use of this mode of travel for work trips in Tabuk city. The analysis presented in the paper provide an addition to practice and academic work in the area of investigations of choices of modes of travel and factors which contribute to it in Saudi Arabia (SA). In addition, SA is a developing country with unique cultural and traffic characteristics, to encourage further enhancement and utilization of this mode. Further investigations in these areas are still needed. Key words: Car sharing, travel behaviour, sustainable travel modes, Saudi Arabia.

Taï chimpanzees change their travel direction for rare feeding trees providing fatty fruits

The production of edible rainforest fruits is characterized by fluctuating and seasonal patterns that require frugivores to flexibly adjust their ranging behaviour. We investigated whether significant changes in a forager's travel direction can inform us about the importance of the nutritional and energetic aspects of different food sources for a wild animal's diet. We recorded the ranging patterns of five adult female chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes verus, for a total of 275 full days in the Tai National Park in Cote d’Ivoire and designed two models that predicted their directional changes at, and on the way to, fruit-bearing feeding trees. In both models, directional change was significantly influenced by the density of the feeding tree species and the crude fat content of that species' fruit. Female chimpanzees were more likely to change their travel direction for rarer trees, at which they fed on fruits that contained higher amounts of fat. In addition, directional changes tended to be positively influenced by the content of nonstructural (‘easy energy’) and structural carbohydrates (NDF) in that species' fruit. We did not detect any effect of sensory cues or social factors on the directional changes, in either model. The amount of fruit available and the time since the start of the fruiting season positively influenced directional change in the second model, which suggests that chimpanzees were updating their knowledge of the fruit availability in individual trees over time. Our results indicate that the nutrient content of fruit and its abundance exerted a significant impact on the shape of chimpanzee female travel paths, which opens up a new avenue for investigation of food preferences in wild animals through analyses of their ranging patterns.

Geografía del género y los espacios de encuentro colonial: una nueva mirada a las narrativas de viaje

Travel books and narratives constitute a rich source for the understanding of Europe's intellectual appropriation of the Orient, as both an integral part and the result of the vast process known as colonialism in which geography was so deeply involved. In particular, I wish to recover the narratives of female travelers and explorers, who also constitute the basis of the training in our discipline. This text is divided into three sections: the first reviews the critical reception of Edward Said's views on Orientalism and “Otherness”. The second focuses on two female European travelers in the Arab world at the beginning of the 20th century, Gertrude Bell and Isabelle Eberhardt. These two women were selected since they embody very different ways of coping with the Otherness that the world of Islam represented for Europe at the time.

Female travel gasa of 1930s and travel experience of Old women −focused on <Gyeonseong Itinerary Rickshaw>

Female travel gasa of 1930s and travel experience of Old women −focused on <Gyeonseong Itinerary Rickshaw>

‘Our observations should not be disunited: Collaborative Women’s Travel Writing, 1780-1840

Before 1780, only ten books of travel by women had been published in Britain and Ireland, all by single authors if we discount the role of translators (two of the ten were translations from the French)1. After 1780, as the Database of Women’s Travel Writing (2014) demonstrates with statistical accuracy, women for the first time established themselves as a continuous presence in the travel writing market, increasing their output from 5 titles in the 1780s to 74 in the 1830s2. These figures include diverse travel genres, principally narratives, guidebooks, and letterpress plate books, but also travel-based storybooks for young audiences, digests, and collections. For the first time, we begin to see female travel writers experimenting with authorial roles such as co-author, contributor, editor, translator, abridger, compiler, letterpress writer, and illustrator. In other instances, women’s travel writing finds its way into print, sometime posthumously, only through the intervention of others, editors who overlay their own language, perspectives, and agendas, a form of collaboration to be sure, but not one that embodies the joint production some might associate with the term. Of the 204 titles covered by the Database, 47 (or 23 %) involve multiple authorial relationships, though only seven of these are jointly written work

Women and Orientalism: 19th century Representations of the Harem by European female travellers and Ottoman women

The inaccessibility of the Ottoman harems to European males helped perpetuate the image of the harem as purely sexual in nature and contributed to imperialistic discourse that positioned the East as inferior to the West. It was only with the emergence of female travellers and artists that Europe was afforded a brief glimpse into the source of their fantasies; however, whether these accounts catered to or challenged the normative imperialist discourse of the day remains controversial. Emerging scholarship also highlights the way in which harem women themselves were able to control the depiction of their private spaces to suit their own needs, serving to highlight how nineteenth century depictions of the harem were a series of cross-cultural exchanges and negotiations between male Orientalists, female European travellers, and shrewd Ottoman women.

Gender and Age Differences in the Travel Behavior – A Novi Sad Case Study

This work presents the results obtained by analyzing behavior patterns of transport users in Novi Sad (Republic of Serbia) with respect to their gender and age. Novi Sad is the second largest city in the Republic of Serbia, and is recognized as a regional administrative, commercial, tourist and cultural center. In addition to its favorable geographical, topographical and climatic conditions, its street and public transport network has considerably developed in recent decades, while its innermost districts have a well developed network of bicycle paths. Presently, the city is characterized by extremely high participation of non-motorized trips (about 48%) and approximately equal contribution of public transport and private vehicles to the motorized travel volume. The aforementioned analysis utilized the information sourced from the NOSTRAM database and the Novi Sad Transport Model. In order to form such a comprehensive database of daily activities, a series of traffic surveys was carried out (household surveys, surveys on the outer cordon, public transport passenger counting, parking space utilization monitoring, etc.). Statistical analysis of the household survey data enabled a comparison of the male and female core travel characteristics. The same methodology was subsequently employed in comparing travel characteristics pertinent to different age groups (children, teenagers, students, working-age population represented by several categories, and pensioners). Data analysis revealed gender differences in the utilization of various transport modes, as well as with respect to travel purpose and daily distribution of key activities. It can be said that, due to the traditional societal values and poor economic conditions, women tend to use passenger car less frequently than men do. The results related to different age groups prompted a discussion on transport accessibility to various population strata and employment level as the potential causes of the observed patterns and low mobility among children.The contribution of this paper is multifaceted, as it provides valuable information for further social and traffic studies, as well as for the creation of sustainable mobility plans for Novi Sad. The patterns revealed here can be applied in the development of mobility schemes of other regional cities characterized by similar economic development and cultural-historical heritage. The value of this work is reflected in the creation of a solid basis for the definition of mathematical models of transport demand and identification of transport policy measures directed toward sustainable mobility.

The Travelers' Aid Society: Moral Reform and Social Work in New York City, 1907–1916

The Travelers' Aid SocietyMoral Reform and Social Work in New York City, 1907–1916 Eric C. Cimino In director James Gray's recent film The Immigrant (2014), a Polish immigrant named Ewa is awaiting deportation at Ellis Island when she encounters a man who claims to be a worker for the Travelers' Aid Society. The man, Bruno, promises Ewa a safe place to stay and a good job if she will leave the island with him.1 Having no other options, she agrees. Bruno escorts her off the island to an apartment on the Lower East Side, where Ewa senses that something is not right. Her initial suspicions are confirmed when the next day Bruno takes her to a seedy burlesque theater where she is put to work as a seamstress. He later pressures her into dancing for the theater's male patrons and, through constant psychological manipulation, ultimately convinces her to work for him as a prostitute. Ewa's immigrant American dream now shattered, she must find a way to survive amidst New York City's underworld. In reviews, film critics have presented a confused picture of Bruno's identity. For instance, A. O. Scott writing in the New York Times asserts that Bruno is a "well connected representative" of the Travelers' Aid Society.2 Others have called him an imposter who simply poses as an aid worker from a group that may or may not exist.3 Readers and film viewers may wonder if the Travelers' Aid Society has a history in New York and, [End Page 34] if so, was it a front used to recruit women into an illicit world of burlesque dancing and prostitution? The Travelers' Aid Society of New York (TAS) did indeed exist. And, it was not a front; rather, it was established to prevent women from falling victim to schemes similar to Bruno's. The prominent philanthropist, Grace Hoadley Dodge, founded the TAS in 1907 as a response to the moral and sexual dangers that she believed confronted single women (immigrant and native-born) as they entered American cities in search of work and leisure. Moral reformers, like Dodge, assumed that traveling women who were adrift from their family and community existed on the "border line of tragedy," where the slightest misstep could result in a downward spiral that culminated in white slavery, the coerced prostitution of white women.4 To prevent the tragedy of white slavery, the TAS provided social work to at-risk travelers at New York City's train stations and piers. Much of its work involved escorting travelers away from "danger zones" and to locations it deemed safe and respectable, such as the accommodations of the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) and the Young Women's Hebrew Association.5 It also helped arriving travelers connect with family members and departing travelers to catch their trains and steamships. In more dramatic instances, the TAS separated female travelers from men who were judged to be imminently dangerous. When writing about social welfare and reform projects, like travelers' aid, scholars often invoke theories of social control and discipline. They claim that social welfare is used to compel working-class and poor people into behaving according to middle-class values for the sake of maintaining the industrial order and the state.6 However, a rival interpretation also [End Page 35] exists that presents welfare as a dynamic field that incorporates a wide-range of actors who have competing ideas about how to best serve clients and address social problems. This literature maintains that in addition to having a history of discipline and control, social work also has a tradition of benevolence and empowerment.7 This essay draws from both perspectives. It takes seriously the Travelers' Aid Society's claims to protect and assist travelers, while also acknowledging the organization's disciplinary features. It argues that the TAS's coercive elements were moderate during its period as a women's organization (1907–1910), which allowed members of the group, more often than not, to provide valuable aid to travelers. Travelers who could, for example, use assistance navigating a crowded station, locating a city address, or finding a job accepted travelers' aid...

LETITIA E. LANDON AND ISABELLA BIRD: FEMALE PERSPECTIVES OF ASIA IN THE VICTORIAN TEXT

British representations of Asia became an increasingly common cultural and literary phenomenon in the nineteenth century, with works of fiction and non-fiction replete with various depictions of life in the East flooding the literary marketplace. With Romantic Orientalism firmly established as a literary trope, the exoticism of the East proved highly attractive as a source of inspiration for male poets such as Lord Byron, Robert Southey, and Thomas Moore, and many eagerly took up Byron's advice to 'stick to the East [as] the public are orientalizing.' British colonial expansion in countries like India, China and Malaya in the second half of the nineteenth century especially resulted in a rise in the number of female travellers and expatriates tapping into this lucrative market for Orientalist fiction and non-fiction, providing their own accounts of Eastern landscapes, cultures, and peoples that rivalled those of earlier, predominantly male. voices. This essay examines the depictions of Asia in the writings of two prominent Victorian female authors, the poet and short story writer, Letitia Elizabeth Landon (more popularly known as LEL), who published in the 1830s, and Isabella Bird, the famed explorer and first woman fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, who published from 1856 until 1901. My discussion will juxtapose Landon's portrayal of China and Malaya in two poems, namely 'Macao' (1833) and 'Pulo Penang' (1836), with Bird's accounts of China and Malaya in her travelogue The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither (1883).

Married, mom and manager – how can this be combined with an international career?

The purpose of this paper is to examine the experiences of females combining global careers, in particular, frequent international business travel and a dual-career family. With the increasing popularity of alternate forms of expatriation, females have the opportunity to follow a global career while being in a dual-career partnership and having children. Previous research has suggested that alternatives to long-term expatriation, such as international business travel, are considered more family friendly. Integrating family and international business travel, however, still poses many challenges to women. This paper examines the ways in which they handle this challenging situation according to social capital theory. It presents initial exploratory insights stemming from interview data including 25 female international business travelers living in dual-career families from four Western and non-Western countries on four different continents. These interviews, which were analyzed using template analysis, show common ways and similar experiences and understanding of integrating family and career life as female non-traditional expatriates across cultures. Differences remain, however, because of conditions in the local environment.

Bayesian network-based formulation and analysis for toll road utilization supported by traffic information provision

Congestion pricing has been proposed and investigated as an effective means of optimizing traffic assignment, alleviating congestion, and enhancing traffic operation efficiencies. Meanwhile, advanced traffic information dissemination systems, such as Advanced Traveler Information System (ATIS), have been developed and deployed to provide real-time, accurate, and complete network-wide traffic information to facilitate travelers’ trip plans and routing selections. Recent advances in ATIS technologies, especially telecommunication technology, allow dynamic, personalized, and multimodal traffic information to be disseminated and impact travelers’ choices of departure times, alternative routes, and travel modes in the context of congestion pricing. However, few studies were conducted to determine the impact of traffic information dissemination on toll road utilizations. In this study, the effects of the provisions of traffic information on toll road usage are investigated and analyzed based on a stated preference survey conducted in Texas. A Bayesian Network (BN)-based approach is developed to discover travelers’ opinions and preferences for toll road utilization supported by network-wide traffic information provisions. The probabilistic interdependencies among various attributes, including routing choice, departure time, traffic information dissemination mode, content, coverage, commuter demographic information, and travel patterns, are identified and their impacts on toll road usage are quantified. The results indicate that the BN model performs reasonably well in travelers’ preference classifications for toll road utilization and knowledge extraction. The BN Most Probable Explanation (MPE) measurement, probability inference and variable influence analysis results illustrate travelers using highway advisory radio and internet as their primary mode of receiving traffic information are more likely to comply with routing recommendations and use toll roads. Traffic information regarding congested roads, road hazard warnings, and accident locations is of great interest to travelers, who tend to acquire such information and use toll roads more frequently. Travel time formation for home-based trips can considerably enhance travelers’ preferences for toll road usage. Female travelers tend to seek traffic information and utilize toll roads more frequently. As expected, the information provided at both pre-trip and en-route stages can positively influence travelers’ preferences for toll road usage. The proposed methodology and research findings advance our previous study and provide insight into travelers’ behavioral tendencies concerning toll road utilization in support of traffic information dissemination.

Profile of Travelers With Preexisting Medical Conditions Attending a Specialist Travel Medicine Clinic in Ireland.

Patients with complex medical comorbidities travel for protracted periods to remote destinations, often with limited access to medical care. Few descriptions are available of their preexisting health burden. This study aimed to characterize preexisting medical conditions and medications of travelers seeking pre-travel health advice at a specialized travel medicine clinic. Records of travelers attending the Galway Tropical Medical Bureau clinic between 2008 and 2014 were examined and information relating to past medical history was entered into a database. Data were recorded only where the traveler had a documented medical history and/or was taking medications. Of the 4,817 records available, 56% had a documented medical history and 24% listed medications. The majority of travelers with preexisting conditions were female. The mean age of the cohort was 31.68 years. The mean period remaining before the planned trip was 40 days. Southeast Asia was the most popular single destination, and 17% of travelers with medical conditions were traveling alone. The most frequently reported conditions were allergies (20%), insect bite sensitivity (15%), asthma (11%), psychiatric conditions (4%), and hypertension (3%). Of the 30 diabetic travelers, 14 required insulin; 4.5% of travelers were taking immunosuppressant drugs, including corticosteroids. Half of the female travelers were taking the oral contraceptive pill while 11 travelers were pregnant at the time of their pre-travel consultation. This study provides an insight into the medical profile of travelers attending a travel health clinic. The diverse range of diseases reported highlights the importance of educating physicians and nurses about the specific travel health risks associated with particular conditions. Knowledge of the effects of travel on underlying medical conditions will inform the pre-travel health consultation.

Understanding women's accommodation experiences on girlfriend getaways: a pragmatic action research approach

In the realm of women's travel, while the accommodation experiences and preferences of female business travellers have been investigated, little is known about the female leisure-traveller in this regard. This study investigates one of the growth sectors in women's travel – girlfriend getaways (GGAs), which are holidays taken by females with other females. An action research approach was employed to explore the accommodation needs of all these female travel groups in the Malaysian context. Using a five-stage approach which included in-depth interviews, a hotel stay for three groups of women on a GGA, focus groups and secondary data analysis, four themes were identified. These themes address feminine comforts, facilitating friendship, safety, and shopping and the use of discount promotions with GGA. Findings suggest that the needs of female leisure-travellers are distinct from those of women who travel on business. Recommendations for hotel management are made to enhance the GGA experience for women, notably providing spaces and activities to facilitate female bonding.

Confrontations in the New World: Grete Weil's Happy, sagte der Onkel (1968)

In her essay “Travel Writing and Gender,” the British scholar Susan Bassnett makes two points that are relevant in analyzing Grete Weil’s travel tales, Happy, sagte der Onkel (Happy, Said My Uncle). Bassnett remarks that “increasingly in the twentieth century, male and female travelers have written self-reflexive texts that defy easy categorization as autobiography, memoir, or travel account.” This observation certainly holds true for Grete Weil’s slim volume, and so does Bassnett’s gender-specific assertion that there is a “strand of women’s travel writing that has grown in importance in the twentieth century: the journey that leads to greater self-awareness and takes the reader simultaneously on that journey.

Rape on the Railway: Women, Safety, and Moral Panic in Victorian Newspapers

In the Victorian press, the railway carriage was painted as a site of particular danger for women travelling alone. As a hybrid public and private space, the carriage placed strangers together in an intimate, quasi-domestic setting for which there were few established norms of behaviour. When male and female solo travellers found themselves confined together, it set the scene both for sexual assault and for false charges of assault, which the newspapers played upon; solo female travellers were depicted as either potential victims or potential Potiphar's wives. These representations were prominent in two moral panics that attempted to regulate women's movement. In this article, I examine accounts of sexual assault from the Lancet, The Times, the English Leader, and the People's Advocate from the 1860s and 1870s and consider newspaper reports as a source of erotic stimulation in a late-century pornographic novel, Raped on the Railway. I argue that the newspapers' fascination with sexual violence on trains, while connected to the weakened division between public and private spaces and an association of railway engines with virility, was primarily a response to fears about women's increasing freedom.

Amplifying Women's Intelligence through Travel: Inna's Tale in ‘The Booroom Slave’ (1828) by Sarah Bowdich

Sarah Bowdich’s story 'The Booroom Slave' has elicited little critical attention except in recent studies mainly investigating the black and white lithograph that accompanied its first publication in the 'Forget Me Not' Gift Book in 1828. This article, however, focuses specifically on the text as an important tale of travel enhanced by its various strategic retellings. In 'The Booroom Slave', Inna first recounts her traumatic capture, journey to coastal slave markets, and escape through a male African interpreter when she meets the tale's (English) narrator, who then retranslates Inna’s journey and its consequences for her literate readers. But this double telling of travel within the story is also matched by the two-fold iterations of the whole. It was similarly recast by male interpreters when reprinted in America in 1829 in 'The African Repository and Colonial Journal'. Sarah Bowdich then reshaped it in 1835 for her 'Stories from Strange Lands' by adding extensive footnotes elucidating its West African references from her own travel experience of 1816. By exploring these parallel, doubly reframed, female travel narrations, this article argues that 'The Booroom Slave' offers a critique of the limitations of the British/European civilising mission that was unusually far-seeing not only for the early nineteenth century, but also for the tale's postcolonial afterlives.

Hotel cleanliness: will guests pay for enhanced disinfection?

PurposeThis study aims to propose that there may be a marketable segment of guests who are willing to pay a premium for guestrooms that are cleaned using enhanced disinfection techniques beyond the normal room cleaning procedures. Room cleanliness is important to hotel guests. Some hotel brands currently offer allergy-free rooms, charging a premium for this service. However, no hotel brands currently serve the market that is willing to pay more for enhanced disinfection. This exploratory study investigates whether there is such a segment and, if so, what price premium these customers are willing to pay for enhanced disinfection.Design/methodology/approachSurvey methods were used to determine the consumer’s perceptions of hotel guestroom cleanliness; the effectiveness of traditional and enhanced cleaning methods; and willingness to pay for enhanced guestroom disinfection.FindingsYounger travelers and female travelers of all ages may be willing to pay a significant price premium for enhanced disinfection of a hotel guestroom.Research limitations/implicationsThe survey instrument was administered via the Internet, limiting the sample. The study participants were not asked about hotel brand; thus, the results could not be analyzed by brand or service level.Originality/valuePast research focuses only on traditional cleaning methods. This article provides a template for the hotel industry to explore the feasibility of offering enhanced cleanliness as a revenue-generating amenity.