How Indian women are shaping travel on both sides of the door

At some point in the last few years, the girls’ trip stopped being a once-in-a-while thing and became more of a given. Dates get blocked, flights get compared and someone finds an Airbnb that looks too good to be true. Mostly pairs, sometimes small groups and with a decisiveness about where to actually go. And there is data to prove it.

The most-searched domestic destinations for women in 2025 were North Goa, Bengaluru, Gurugram, South Goa and Pune, according to Airbnb data. The destinations are familiar, reliable and easy to agree on. Internationally, Dubai, London, Bangkok, Paris and Rome made the list.

However, looking past the search data to where bookings are actually landing, and the picture gets more interesting.

The new destinations

Dakshina Kannada, the coastal region of river estuaries and temples and seafood joints, recorded roughly 50 per cent year-on-year growth in bookings from Indian women travellers in 2025. As did Mathura, which is quietly becoming more than a pilgrimage stop to a heritage destination. Then there’s Kazbegi, a mountain town in Georgia that recorded over 100 per cent year-on-year growth. 

Duo travel remains the most popular format, followed by small group trips. The destinations, meanwhile, are shifting from less about comfort zones to more about depth.

On the other side of the door

What often gets overlooked in the conversation about women and travel is the women who make the stays worth having. Nearly 30 per cent of Airbnb hosts in India are women, and they manage almost 35 per cent of the platform’s highest-rated listings. 

In a business where reputation is everything and reviews make or break a place, that number is quietly significant. It means the most recommended places to stay are, more often than not, run by women.

There’s a homestay in Uttarakhand run by a woman named Babita. A few years ago, she was hosting on instinct, with warmth, local knowledge and a desire to share her piece of the hills. What she lacked was the structure to make it last. After going through a training programme for aspiring homestay hosts, she found it. 

“It gave me the confidence to grow my small idea into a sustainable livelihood,” she says. The guests who find their way to her are looking for exactly what she offers – somewhere that feels considered, run by someone who actually knows the land.

What it adds up to

The Indian woman traveller in 2025 is not a demographic that needs decoding. She knows where she wants to go, she has opinions about where she wants to stay and she’s increasingly choosing experiences that have some substance to them.