Catheryn Khoo , Prachi Thakur , Mona Ji Hyun Yang , Jessica Mei Pung , Amanda Ting
{"title":"Body hair and booty calls: Conceptualising ‘empowered-ness’ in travel and tourism for solo female vanlifers","authors":"Catheryn Khoo , Prachi Thakur , Mona Ji Hyun Yang , Jessica Mei Pung , Amanda Ting","doi":"10.1016/j.annals.2025.103905","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The present study focuses on advancing the current discourse from women empowerment to ‘empowered-ness’ by conceptualising solo female vanlifers' bodies from travel reflections as a medium to redefine boundaries for socio-cultural norms. This study adopted a multi-faceted approach integrating social-networking-platform and ethnographic data to examine empowered-ness for women in prolonged mobility, and the role of empowered women's bodies in travel. 421 statements from 285 solo female vanlifers were collected through social-networking-platforms, and supplemented with synchronous longitudinal ethnographic data journalling solo female vanlife. The findings demonstrate that female empowered-ness through vanlife mobility manifests through independence from men, unconventional relationships, and risk-taking behaviour. This conceptual shift from empowerment to an ‘empowered’ framework is a contribution to solo female travel literature.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48452,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Tourism Research","volume":"111 ","pages":"Article 103905"},"PeriodicalIF":10.4000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Annals of Tourism Research","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160738325000118","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"HOSPITALITY, LEISURE, SPORT & TOURISM","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The present study focuses on advancing the current discourse from women empowerment to ‘empowered-ness’ by conceptualising solo female vanlifers' bodies from travel reflections as a medium to redefine boundaries for socio-cultural norms. This study adopted a multi-faceted approach integrating social-networking-platform and ethnographic data to examine empowered-ness for women in prolonged mobility, and the role of empowered women's bodies in travel. 421 statements from 285 solo female vanlifers were collected through social-networking-platforms, and supplemented with synchronous longitudinal ethnographic data journalling solo female vanlife. The findings demonstrate that female empowered-ness through vanlife mobility manifests through independence from men, unconventional relationships, and risk-taking behaviour. This conceptual shift from empowerment to an ‘empowered’ framework is a contribution to solo female travel literature.
期刊介绍:
The Annals of Tourism Research is a scholarly journal that focuses on academic perspectives related to tourism. The journal defines tourism as a global economic activity that involves travel behavior, management and marketing activities of service industries catering to consumer demand, the effects of tourism on communities, and policy and governance at local, national, and international levels. While the journal aims to strike a balance between theory and application, its primary focus is on developing theoretical constructs that bridge the gap between business and the social and behavioral sciences. The disciplinary areas covered in the journal include, but are not limited to, service industries management, marketing science, consumer marketing, decision-making and behavior, business ethics, economics and forecasting, environment, geography and development, education and knowledge development, political science and administration, consumer-focused psychology, and anthropology and sociology.