ldsant

As there have now been Travelling with Children, Travelling with Pets, and Senior Travellers, I would like to propose a new forum for solo travellers. Solo travellers have their own unique needs/requirements for the following factors:

Double Occupancy doesn't happen so higher fares/prices e.g., travelocity last minute deals and lastminute.com - select a "deal" and then see the price go up about 40 - 60% when you enter 1 traveller.

Restaurants that have communal dining, happy hours, etc. that are appropriate for solo travellers.

Ways to meet up with other solo travellers on group trips e.g., cooking schools, special hobby tours, etc.

This forum would not be intended as a "meeting" place for singles although that might happen; but rather intended as a forum to discuss how best to stretch dollars when you're travelling solo.

magiciansampras

Brilliant, I like it!

Solo travelers do have special needs, indeed. I think this is a fantastic idea. ^

tcook052

I always travel alone and have found the exisiting FT resources more than adequate so see no need for yet another forum for single travellers.

With all due respect to the OP but where does this FT demographic differentiation end? Tall travellers forum? Short travellers forum? "Large" travellers forum? Divorced travellers forum? Travelling with parents forum? Group travellers forum? Reunions forum? Maybe I'm seeing FT as one big melting pot able to accommodate while incorporating differences rather than changing itself to a certain extent to suit each of those differences. Is there really a need? Or are we just creating a need where perhaps none exists? Does anyone feel they aren't able to obtain good single traveller info from the current FT options?

magiciansampras

I respectfully disagree. I don't think there is a legitimate place on FT where all solo-related topics are in one area. Solo travelers are the outliers of FT. There is a couples bias, IMHO, and solo travelers deserve their own community.

tcook052

I think of myself as a traveller first and not a solo traveller first and I feel we are becoming hyphenated FTers much like the rest of society.

magiciansampras

So should we not have any Special Interest groups then, in your view? Or are some special interests created more equally than others?

craz

I'll 2nd this, besides I dont know many people who travel on Biz with their Spouses or SOs.

Being a Solo Traveler myself, I always found what I needed any where on FT.If anything maybe there should be a Forum for those Not Traveling Solo as most Hotels will raise their rate if there is more then 1 in the room or if you want a King over a Queen or Single bed. So if anyone is getting short changed its not the Solo traveler

craz

Some are created different then others

linsj

As a mostly solo traveler, I agree.

kokonutz

As a deeply religious traveler I have found what I needed on FT without the RT forum. So that's too simplistic of a test.

To me, that's the problem with these 'special needs' forums, some things end up being more special than others.

I tend to think about these things in terms of my own pet project that I've been trying to get on FT for about five years now: a mens travel forum. It is an idea that has powerful enemies but that I think, if given a shot would fill a great little niche a build a cool sub-community. Alas.

So my test for creating new forums AND analyzing existing travel forums is twofold:

1) is there a core group of posters passionate enough about the topic that they 'take ownership' of the forum and visit it once or several times a day to answer questions and discuss stuff, and
2) will/does a sub-community develop around the forum?

I think I may be coming around to the idea that RT does meet these tests...but that for some reason that's just not reflected in what actually gets posted on the forum.

My mind is open to this idea meeting those tests, but I'd like to hear some additional input.

Other TB members may (and probably do) feel differently!

tcook052

I'm not specifically saying "no more forums" as it's fairly hard to start allowing FT segmentation for seniors and families without then almost being forced to say 'yes' to this proposal. I just wonder where it all ends and as I mentioned earlier there could be dozens more demographic forum requests and you wind up with a spagetti like network where you are forced to decide whether to post in Solo Travellers Forum or Student Travellers Forum or Budget Travellers Forum because TOS won't allow dupe threads in all three. Heaven help the gay, single, seniors travelling with pets as you'd have to probably flip a coin to figure out which segment to focus on. Does that make sense?

Much of what was outlined in the OP is already done on other forums anyway; Community forum has where singles & others meeting up with other FTers either in an organized "Do" or when they are simply passing through a city. Other issues like solo hotel pricing should already be up for discussion in the hotel loyalty programs or hotel deals. Those are just a few examples off the top of my head so while I know I'll be in the tiny minority yet again (maybe I'm genetically a contrarian) I don't see the huge demand not being met after a decade on FT.

ldsant

The argument for a solo traveller should be the same as senior traveller. There are many many resources available on FT that apply to seniors as well. I didn't see any of you objecting to that forum creation.

As a solo traveller 99% of the time I think this would be a very useful forum for the reasons outlined above. Solo travellers do have unique needs. As I was against segmentation when the Senior forum vote came up and the TB has decided that there should be segmentation in the forums then I think that this is an excellent example of another forum that should be created.

To quote statistics (since that is what occurred before), there are currently over 120 million singles (solos) in the US alone.

iluv2fly

I actually think it's not a bad idea.

tcook052

Then you weren't looking hard enough. See here.

tom911

I've found that the Budget Travel forum does incorporate some discussion about solo travel (hostels, for instance), but not all solo travelers are "budget" travelers, and they may be looking for hotels and B&B's instead of hostels, as an example. They're very different ends of the market.

I'd be interested in a solo travel forum. The Budget Travel forum, which has only been open a year or two, has proven to be successful, and I would think a Solo Travel forum would also be successful.