Travel Lifestyle of Young Indian Students: Gender Distinct or Gender Blurred

Abstract

The ‘youth’ segment has emerged as a lucrative travel market across the globe and has a promising potential for future growth. In the youth market, a characteristic trend visible with change of times is the increasing participation of both ‘male and ‘female’ genders as ‘tourists’, indicating a striking change in comparison to travel of early times that was dominated by male tourists alone. This shows the emergence of a societal trend moving towards defying ‘gender stereotypes’ and ‘doing gender’. Particularly in progressing societies, the softening of gender stereotypes has been instrumental in encouraging participation of both males and females equally as consumers of tourism. Hence, in the present times characterized by rapid social transitions, changes in gender status and narrowing of gender differences towards lifestyles becoming ‘gender neutral’, this study attempts to identify whether or not, in tourism participation, travel behaviour and travel lifestyle of young males and females is undergoing a parallel transformation, moving from being ‘gender distinct’ to becoming ‘gender blurred’.

Keywords: Youth, Gender, Travel Behaviour

View PDF