A woman books a caravan park stay for one. A few years ago, that might have been seen as slightly unusual. Today, it’s one of the fastest-growing bookings in Australian tourism — and Reflections Holidays wants to be the operator that gets it right.
The holiday park group’s newly released Wander Woman Report set out to answer a question the industry has been slow to ask: what do women actually want when they travel alone? The answer has reshaped how Reflections is designing the guest experience, from safety information to the small local details that make a solo stay feel less solitary. Nick Baker, CEO of Reflections Holidays, spoke to The Carousel about what prompted the research, what it revealed, and what’s changing on the ground.
Why commission the research at all?
For Nick, the starting point was recognising how fast the category was moving. “Solo travelling has significantly grown in popularity over the last few years, and women are leading the charge,” he says. What was once considered a niche way to see a destination is, in his words, becoming Australian women’s preferred way to travel.
There was also a deeper motivation: a willingness to be told where the business could do better. “Feedback is something that a business should always be comfortable with receiving,” he says, “and it’s part of the motivation behind commissioning this research.” Understanding how to best support female solo travellers within Reflections’ own parks was, he says, the real objective.
What the data revealed
Two findings stood out. The first was unsurprising but emphatic — safety comes first. Solo female travellers are doing their homework before they arrive, Nick says, leaning on other travellers’ recommendations to feel confident about where they’re staying.
The second finding was more nuanced, and arguably more useful. Most women surveyed wanted the option to connect with fellow travellers — but not at the cost of flexibility. “Travelling solo doesn’t necessarily mean that you want to be alone,” he adds. “For the majority, they actually want a bit of both.” How much a woman engages on any given day, he says, comes down to mood, timing and what’s on offer — the freedom to choose is the whole point.
Just as telling was what solo travel isn’t. The research reinforced that women travelling alone are doing so deliberately, not as a fallback when no travel companion is available. “It’s a way of travelling that millions of Australians are embracing,” he says, “as they feel it enables them to gain more of what they want from a trip.”
Turning insight into action: the Wander Woman Welcome
The clearest response to the research is the Wander Woman Welcome, a new guest initiative piloting across three Reflections Holidays parks — Seal Rocks, Bonny Hills and Forster — each chosen because it’s run by a female park manager.
The mechanics are simple. When a solo traveller books into a pilot location, she receives an opt-in email asking whether she’d like to take part. Guests who say yes receive a tailored Field Guide pack ahead of arrival — covering the best sunrise and sunset spots, local food and coffee recommendations, standout walks, and any community events happening during their stay, from a local park run to a weekend market.
The pack also folds in practical safety details: the park manager’s name and after-hours phone number, guidance on what to do if arriving late at night, and how to flag site-specific requests — proximity to amenities, well-lit locations, or getting involved in park activities.
The pilot runs for three months, with Reflections Holidays collecting guest feedback throughout to refine how the Wander Woman Welcome delivers value before any wider rollout.
The bigger play
What Nick describes isn’t a marketing campaign bolted onto a trend — it’s a holiday park group re-reading its own guest data through a new lens, then building the infrastructure to match. If the pilot lands as intended, the Wander Woman Welcome could become a blueprint for how the broader tourism industry — hotels included — starts designing for a traveller it has, until now, mostly overlooked.
