Industry Woos Women With Safety & Health Initiatives
<B>Industry Woos Women With Safety & Health Initiatives</B>
By Sarah Welt
With the number of female travelers rapidly approaching the 50 percent mark, travel industry suppliers are beginning to implement programs geared toward their specific needs.
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, whose Women On Their Way program made the chain a pioneer in marketing to female travelers in 1995, nine months ago heeded the advice of its Women Business Traveler Advisory Board and began calling guestrooms five minutes before room service was to be delivered to advise that attendants were on their way up.
The service is available not only to women, but to all guests, so that they are prepared and not in the shower or on the phone, said vice president of Wyndham Women On Their Way marketing Cary Broussard.
The company also now offers Bath & Body Works toiletries and provides basic amenities such as hair dryers, ironing boards, coffeemakers and skirt hangers in every room.
This month it also will try out onsite manicurist service because "our advisory board told us that while on the road they want to get that out of the way" if they have down time between appointments, Broussard said.
In addition to the advisory board, which has been meeting twice a year since 1996, Wyndham offers articles and travel tips for female executives on the Women on Their Way Web site at www.womenbusinesstravelers.com. Women also can sign up for its e-mail newsletter.
"The program was started because we saw the trend," Broussard said. "More and more women were staying in our hotels and more and more women were on staff inside the company."
Wyndham also has entered into partnerships with leading female business organizations, such as the National Association of Women Business Owners, and has partnered with New York University's Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Travel Administration. NYU and Wyndham conducted a study with 403 women and 203 men last March to study trends regarding women in the workforce. Among its findings was the fact that 40 percent of all female business travelers are the sole or primary wage earner in their family.
"That shows that women are in control and have a great deal of purchasing power, and backs up what we are doing in a big way," Broussard said.
A second part of the study will be completed by the end of the year.
Loews Hotels also is becoming increasingly sensitive to the needs of women business travelers, said director of public relations Emily Kanders. Loews now provides in-room fitness services such as yoga and massage at certain properties to women who are not comfortable going out for exercise in an unfamiliar city. Also to appeal to the growing female population, Loews this month is launching a new menu standard for all properties which requires more items that are high in protein and low in carbohydrates.
On the agency side, Englewood, Colo.-based Corporate Travel Services also is taking the needs of its female travelers very seriously. Two years ago it began offering a program where it meets with female business travelers at their corporate location on a quarterly basis to discuss safety tips for traveling domestically and abroad. International issues include customs and protocol for women in different countries as well as what to do if they lose their money or passports. The agency also offers third-party insurance in case a medical evacuation is necessary in a third- world country.
On the home front, agents assure women business travelers when they go to a city for a meeting, that all hotel properties are thoroughly researched. "We make sure there is a restaurant onsite and shuttle service, and we research the neighborhood" said president and CEO Brenda Rivers.
Corporate Travel Services this year plans to begin offering seminars for women's business groups. CTS and Rivers received the Woman Business Owner of the Year Award for the Rocky Mountain Region from the NAWBO.
The goal now is to "push corporations a little more to take advantage of this service," said Rivers. The company also is planning to put a travel tips page on its Web site and enable companies to put it on their corporate intranets.
Delta Air Lines and American Express also have a program geared toward women business travelers. Called The Executive Woman's Travel Network, it offers discounts and travel information. While enrollment is currently closed, information on the program is available on its Web site at www.delta-air.com/womenexecs/.
Despite all these efforts, though, not everyone believes that differentiating between the needs of female and male business travelers is necessary. Colgate-Palmolive travel manager Cyndi Perper, the current president of the National Business Travel Association, said NBTA hasn't perceived it to be an issue. "We travel to sensitive areas and do a medical checkin and check with security," Perper noted, but this benefits all travelers.
Thomson Consumer Electronics travel manager Cindy Heston agreed, noting that when it comes to safety, the company doesn't differentiate between genders. "Based on my own experiences, I don't know of a difference in the way they are viewed or treated," she said.