Throughout the Fall 2021 semester, my team dived in to a virtual ethnography. This project was completed as part of my Ethnography for Designers course at Kennesaw State University. The purpose of this project was to understand a culture within a clearly bounded virtual environment.

This ethnographic report focuses on solo travel from the women’s perspective and what it means to women. Due to the pandemic, we conducted a virtual ethnography. We define solo travel as the act of traveling and experiencing a destination on one’s own.

Research Question

As a woman, how has solo travel shaped your perspective?

Objectives

• Explore women’s perspectives on solo travel

• Understand social interactions between participants of the Girls About the Globe Facebook group

• Understand how solo travel has impacted the lives of our participants

Our Findings
Quite often, an ethnographer’s research question will change during the course of one’s research. The initial
question is often just a starting point. In our case, we initially focused on safety and security while traveling. We
then shifted to a more inclusive question about the way a woman’s travel experiences can alter their perception
of the world around them. These women’s perspectives were shaped primarily by the following categories:

• Cultural Archetypes: Anything related to culture during solo travel whether it be cultural immersion, way of
  communication, or simply discussing sights.

• Feminism: Any social implications that come with being a woman in a solo travel context.

• Freedom and Empowerment: Feelings of freedom and empowerment experienced while or related to solo
  traveling.

• The World is a Kind Place: The praise for kindness in other communities around the world.

We used these four themes to organize data from our observations and interviews. Our study allowed us to
understand solo female travel as it relates to culture. After all, to solo travel is to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes.

My Contribution

In my role as an Ethnographer, I assumed several responsibilities. For this project, I helped with the research design form and filled
out the consent forms. I reached out to roughly 8-10 different potential fields. I also made four Facebook posts in the group. I reached
out and scheduled the interviews. I completed 12 hours of observation in our field, the Girls About the Globe Facebook group. I attended
each interview; I moderated one interview and facilitated three of them.

I attended 2 analysis sessions to complete the matrix assignment. I set up and attended a meeting to set the foundation for the report.
I wrote the following sections of the report: Cohering Metaphor, Observations (shared with Amali), Interviews, Part of Analysis, Honorable
Mentions, Conclusion, and found 3 sources. I made edits and did rewrites and set up the InDesign file for the report. I created all the
graphics for the report. I helped choose fonts and formatted the final report. We utilized Discord for meetings, Zoom for interviews, and
Miro (digital whiteboard collaboration software) to perform group activities and organize content.

As a woman, how has solo travel shaped your perspective?

This report explores the culture surrounding female solo travel through a virtual ethnography.
First, it is important to define what solo travel is. According to a travel-based social media
blogger (@EdgesofEarth), “A Solo Traveler is a person who embarks on a journey, either long or
short, in which they are both physically and emotionally away from the people and the culture
that they are familiar with” (Edges of Earth, n.d.). As a team of women, we were intrigued to learn
how other women became involved in solo travel. We based our study on the following research
question: “As a woman, how does solo travel shape your perspective?”

What is a Virtual Ethnography?

This report details the process for collecting our research, which is loosely based on Sam Ladner’s applied ethnography. Ladner’s process involves recruitment and fieldwork, which can be further broken down into
interviews, observation, analysis, and a written report.

In her book, Practical Ethnography: A Guide to Doing Ethnography in The Private Sector, Sam Ladner describes ethnography as, “the study of culture. It is from the Greek ‘ethno,’ meaning folk or culture, and ‘grapho,’ meaning writing.” In order to study culture, one has to deep dive into the environment associated with the culture through observing, interviewing, analyzing, and reporting on participants in the field of choice.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions and the short duration to observe our fields, our class was asked to choose virtual fields. In “Virtual Ethnography” in The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods, Hanes describes virtual
ethnography as “a research approach for exploring the social interactions that take place in virtual environments,”
which was our research focus for the class. This meant no face-to-face interaction in the field itself, but rather
observing virtual communities, their interactions, and interviewing participants from our field.

Cohering Metaphor

In order to present our research in a way that resonates with our audience, we developed a cohering metaphor. A cohering metaphor is an effective way to “summarize complex ideas and nuanced findings of qualitative research” (Ladner 146). In other words, it enables our audience to understand our research in a familiar way. It helps us, as ethnographers, in our process of reducing, visualizing, and drawing conclusions from our findings.
​
Cohering Metaphor: “To solo travel is to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes.” Our cohering metaphor was derived from our research field—Girls about the Globe. In this virtual space, we found the most common reason for solo travel to be a desire to immerse oneself in other cultures, whether

​Our cohering metaphor was derived from our research field—Girls about the Globe. In this virtual space, we found the most common reason for solo travel to be a desire to immerse oneself in other cultures, whether ​it is through food, social interactions, unique opportunities, or simply seeing the sights. Our cohering metaphor is defined by the ability to understand another culture and people with lives dramatically divergent from one’s own. It embodies the reason why people practice certain customs and hold certain beliefs. In a nutshell, female solo travel is to immerse oneself in another’s norm and to recognize and appreciate the experiences that ensue.

Methodology

Our Field

When discussing topics for our study, our team decided on solo travel, specifically solo travel for women. As a group of young women, we felt that we could relate personally to this topic, and while none of us have any prior experience with solo travel, we were interested in learning more. We developed a research question based on curiosities for our field. Below are the steps we took to answer our research question:

We chose our field based on our common interests in traveling. As an all-female team, we were more intrigued by solo travel pertaining to women rather than general solo travel. After gaining consent to conduct our study in the Girls About the Globe Facebook group, a group that centers around female solo travel, we began our research.

In the beginning, we assumed safety and adversity would be popular topics in our ​field, as statistics show that 73% of women who travel solo worry about their safety (2020 Solo Female Travel Trends Survey Results, n.d.). Through learning about the stories and experiences of the women in our field, we were able to gain perspective on how solo travel has impacted their lives.

Each team member completed an observation journal to immerse ourselves in the field and identify social interactions and shared patterns of behavior. Once we were familiar with the field, we dived in further by conducting interviews with participants to understand their perspectives directly. Following observation, the team came together to share and analyze our findings.

Observations

In order to conduct observations virtually, an ethnographer needs consent and permission to enter a field if it is restricted. We chose Facebook as our primary field and searched for female solo travel groups that would allow us to observe, interview, and participate in their virtual community. We secured access and permission to the Girls About The Globe Facebook group. Each group member conducted twelve hours of observation that included a minimum of four sessions. These observations were
made up of jottings and field notes, which we will discuss in further detail in the Observations section. To organize our findings,
we recorded our notes in a journal. For each session, we highlighted specific interactions in the group ranging from the language used to common topics discussed within the community.

Interviews

Our interviews were conducted after we completed enough observation sessions to familiarize ourselves with our field. We reached out to the Facebook community and asked for willing participants. Amazing women volunteered to share their experiences and give us more information regarding our research. To prepare for our interviews, we wrote an interview script consisting of categories of questions to enable a smooth conversational flow in our interviews. The interviews were conducted via Zoom, and most group members had at least one chance to take on a moderator role. Facilitators took notes in their journals, which were used to analyze our research and answer the research question. The interview portion of the process was the most exciting as it provided a space for direct engagement.

Analysis

The analysis portion allowed us to take a more in-depth look at our journals. Here, we pinpointed recurring topics, themes, phrases, and shared experiences in a conceptually ordered matrix. Through analysis, we refined our matrix and set significant themes in our research. Finally, we established a cohesive metaphor to explain our research with a single phrase.

Observations

Observations were the first step to answering our research question: As a woman, how has
solo travel shaped your perspective?

Each team member observed the Girls About the Globe Facebook group for 12 hours over 6 weeks, amassing a total of 48 hours. Facebook is an online social media platform where people can connect with friends, colleagues, and strangers. Facebook offers a group feature, where people
with common interests can connect. When searching for our field, we looked for ‘female solo travel’ groups on Facebook. Girls About the Globe was just one of the many groups we found. The Girls About the Globe administration gave us permission to conduct our research in their platform. Though the demographics of this group are exclusively women, these participants came from all walks of life.

Jottings

Observations are cumulative of jottings and field notes. In order to keep track of our observations, we kept journals in which we dated and recorded the time of each entry. Jottings are quick notes about anything the ethnographer deems relevant when observing the field, but they strictly focus on behavior and interactions that occur, whether it takes place in the present or past. In our case, these jottings were thoughts, notes about the way participants in our field interacted on the platform, and relevant images.

Field Notes​

Following each jotting session, a short, corresponding field note is written to analyze the documented behavior. We used a modified version of Dell Hymes Speaking Model to structure our field notes: Setting, Participants, Ends, Key, Norms, and Analysis.

• Setting - describe the setting of our observation, or the environment we were in for each entry.

• Ends (or social business) - perception of what the participants were trying to accomplish in the field.

• Key - tone of interactions amongst the participants and/or ourselves.

• Norms - identify “ordinary” and/or “extraordinary” behavior during the observation; any power hierarchies at play.

• Analysis - we reflect on observation; hypothesize about what is going on. It is important to note that the analysis remained tentative and shifted depending on further observations and research.

Interviews

Interviews were the second step to answering our research question. Interviews are used as a chance to interact with participants in the chosen field personally. As this project was a virtual ethnography, we conducted our interviews through Zoom, a video chat platform. In these interviews, we used both video and voice chat. To recruit participants for our interviews, we reached out to several women who commented on the introduction post in our field about their willingness to participate in our study via Facebook’s instant messaging platform. For this project, we only needed four interviews. Prior to conducting interviews, we sent each interviewee a consent form. The consent form informed them of the topic of our study, the names of the group members, example questions, and our university. Though we received signed consent forms from each participant, we will be using alternate names to refer to our interviewees for confidentiality purposes.

Interview Script

To prepare for our interviews, we came up with a script to keep us on topic. Our script consisted of a beginning, middle, and end.

Beginning
At the forefront of the script, we introduced ourselves, thanked the participant for their time, engaged in simple greetings, recapped our project, and asked for consent to record the interview. We also asked for their permission to contact them in the future for follow-up questions, to which they all agreed.

Middle
In the middle, we came up with seven categories for questions, such as background, gender-focused, emotionally charged, etc. Having different categories gave us the freedom to adapt to the flow of the conversation. By doing this, we were able to predict possible directions of our interaction and ask questions that were relevant to the discussion at hand. This allowed us to conduct our interviews in a conversational format rather than interrogating our participants.We asked questions like, “How do you think being a woman has affected your solo travel experience,” and “What does solo travel mean to you?” In addition, we asked about the countries they have been to, how they prepare for their travels, and how they walk in the shoes of others and experience the culture of their destinations.

End
At the conclusion of our script, we thanked our participants for their time and generosity in sharing their experiences with us.

Moderators and Facilitators

During our interviews, we split into two roles: moderator and facilitators. The moderator is in charge of asking questions and engaging in conversation with the participant, while the facilitators take notes and may pop in with a question or two throughout the interview. Several members of our group took turns taking on the responsibility of a moderator in order to enhance our interview skills, but everyone had a chance to participate in the the facilitator role.

Our Interviewees

Analysis

After evaluating our research from the observations and interviews, we came together to analyze our findings collectively. We reviewed our jottings and field notes once more to find key patterns and develop a cohering metaphor: To solo travel is to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes.

Conceptually Ordered Matrix

To analyze our work effectively and reduce it to something manageable, we needed to visualize our data so that we could finalize our themes. This was done by creating a conceptually ordered matrix comprised of our interview and observation sections. A matrix is essentially a table that is time, role, or conceptually ordered, and its goal is to devise a cohering metaphor and answer the research question. Prior to the analysis meeting, we had tentative thoughts on patterns derived from our field notes. During the meeting, we each perused our jottings, field notes, and contextual research to identify similarities and differences in the behavior observed throughout the field.

Interviews

To ease the process of creating the matrix, we started with a matrix based solely on interviews, which helped refine the categories that we wanted to analyze for the remaining fieldwork. These were the identified categories that made up the columns of the matrix: Cultural Archetypes, Freedom and Empowerment, Feminism, and The World is a Kind Place.

Sherry and Elena talked more about the ways in which they immerse themselves into the cultures they explore. Sheila focuses primarily on the sights over the culture. She attributes this primarily to the food, as she believes that food is a large part of culture, but she is ​not one to try to indulge in new cuisines on her travels. On the other hand, Elena adores learning from different cultures, walking in the shoes of others, and supporting the country’s economy by trying local food. However, culture is not limited to sightseeing and food. Ashlyn George, a travel writer, explains, “As a guest in another country, it’s important to respect local customs and religious traditions (regardless of if you agree with them). I believe that dressing modestly is not only a way to fit in with locals in some destinations, but it is also one of the easiest ways to avoid unwanted attention when you’re on your own” (George 2021). This gives us an entirely different perspective of ways to immerse oneself in another culture.

Feminism

We defined feminism as anything related to social implications that come with being a woman in a solo travel context. When discussing topics of feminism, we discovered that most of the women related to experiencing adversity due to being a woman.

When asked about this, Jennifer said, “Certainly as a woman.” She instantly recognized what we were inquiring about while answering the question as if to say “obviously.” She followed up by mentioning that she has received copious amounts of male attention in certain countries, though it doesn’t feel dangerous but rather annoying. Jennifer even mentioned that she tries to book Airbnb’s that are run by women. This allows her to feel safe and acts as a fantastic source for information and help. Sherry noted that she would have a lot less hesitation towards solo travel if she were a man. While acknowledging her prejudice, Kara feels unsafe traveling to places like Egypt alone. She described it as not wanting to put herself through “unnecessary stress” while on vacation. ​Elena told us, “It hasn’t affected me yet. I’ve been lucky not to have had bad experiences.” This could be due to her limited solo travel thus far, as she is still very young. Instead, she took on a more empowering stance, stating, "We should show that we don’t need to be scared. We can also read maps, drive cars, and do things on our own.”

Elena discussed her love for connecting with others during her travels, mentioning that she is not afraid of asking for help if she needs it. Even at all different ages, it was interesting how similarly these women perceived certain aspects of travel. That said, their differences became evident in their level of solo travel experience. For example, while the women with more travel under their belt have come face-to-face with adversity during their travels, Elena, young and just getting started, has not.

Observations

After creating our interview matrix, we used the four categories to organize our observations. We each complied our jottings and field notes into four separate matrices based on our individual journals, then combined them into one comprehensive matrix.

Cultural Archetypes
Concerning cultural archetypes, we found that many make an effort to communicate with locals, and they do this by utilizing Google Translate if they do not speak the same language. Others merely point and gesture. Under posts asking about recommendations, members in the field would frequently share their experiences in different countries and how they felt about it. This helps the participants better understand what they can expect in the country or where they should go, allowing the commenter to reminisce on their previous travels. Elena would ask interesting questions that revealed how participants immerse themselves in culture. In a question Elena posed about eating habits while traveling, many responded along the lines of, “I always try to eat traditional as much as I can.”

​Despite all of the good, women have experienced hostility relative to culture. Participants like Kara shared ‘rude’
interactions with Parisians, and it was something she was able to bond and laugh about with others in the comment section. Also related to culture, Elena inquired whether the number of countries an individual has traveled to is significant. This unveiled great insights from others’ perspectives. Actually experiencing a culture is extremely important, and this was something almost everyone agreed on. One participant mentioned that it is essential to recognize that just because a country is “on your list,” it doesn’t mean that you experienced the culture. Others shared this sentiment by commenting that being given the chance of experiencing a culture means exponentially more than a number. One participant left a particularly insightful comment, which summarized everyone’s thoughts on the topic in a single statement. It also aided in the development of our cohering metaphor: "Traveling for me is not a numbers game, nor is it a competition to be won by those who can show they have been to x number of countries, nor a collection of Instagram moments. It is a cultural exploration and immersion experience, an opportunity to meet the locals and try to see the world through their eyes. And to write their stories. Memories and friends for life.”

​Freedom and Empowerment
Many new members joined the group to be encouraged and empowered to embark on their first solo travel journey. On welcome posts by the admins, women would comment about how inspired they were by the others in the group. It is clear that the first solo travel experience was nerve-wracking for most, but after that initial leap, participants arrived at the conclusion that they could overcome that boundary and that they can travel alone. ​Even the feeling of being on a plane and guessing the countries below you is a freeing experience that participants like Kara described as magic and better than watching the movies. During trips, participants enjoyed partaking in exhilarating activities such as zip-lining, which was described as a terrifying experience at first but became enthralling soon after.

​Feminism
As Girls About the Globe is a women-centered group, feminism is an inherent concept frequently brought up in posts. Women in the group do their best to support each other, discuss female solo travel friendly destinations and bond over shared experiences. Every Monday, Liza Ridge, one of the admins, shares an encouraging quote to inspire the group. An example is, “Be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire.” The group is a safe space as it seems very normal for participants to freely share personal information unprovoked. Whenever participants experience negative interactions in a country, they caution others. Several participants felt unsafe in the Dominican Republic, and they shared their thoughts out of caution for a woman who was planning on traveling there. Additionally, women shared experiences of being harassed by men in Morocco, which led the participant to alter her travel plans.

Women like Kara join walking tours, and Jennifer stays in Airbnbs with a live-in host, preferably a woman. Locals seem to welcome solo female travelers, and some turned into lifelong friends. In many cases where women were worried about a potentially harmful experience, it turned into a positive one due to kind strangers. This thoughtful quote encapsulates this category well: “Solo travel is scary for the first day, but then you meet others and discover that solo only means solo by choice, and friends are waiting to be found.” Overall, these interviews and observations provided us with a more well-rounded understanding of why these women adore solo travel and how it plays a critical role in their lives.

Honorable Mentions

​As discussed in the analysis, we developed four main categories for our research: Feminism, Freedom and Empowerment, Cultural Archetypes, and The World is a Kind Place. Though we feel that these themes encompass our findings the best, we believe it is necessary to mention other notable key patterns.

Safety
Safety was a relatively common theme throughout our observations and interviews. During interviews, we asked safety-related questions such as, “What safety measures do you take before and during your solo travels,” and “How do you determine if a location is solo travel friendly?” We received answers
like, “Not so much solo travel-friendly as solo female travel friendly,” as Jennifer particularly likes to research how women are treated in other countries. Many women made comments recommending not to do anything stupid, such as walking alone at night, and how “...drinking in moderation is the key to
staying alert when solo” (George 2021). The most common answer, though, revolved around doing research in preparation for their travels. Unfortunately, we noticed many stories about extremely negative and unsafe experiences that women faced while solo traveling during our observations.

Passion
​Finally, we noticed an overwhelming amount of passion and drive to travel. Just by being a part of Girls About the Globe, these women have embraced their love for solo travel, and in turn, the group allows them to encourage one another and give thoughtful recommendations for activities and sights. Our interviews often ran over an hour without pause in conversation as our participants had so much to share. They expressed passion in the way they reminisced fondly on their experiences. We also received many comments encouraging us and all young women to “just do it” as it is such a beneficial
experience.

Takeaways

This project allowed me to explore research in a whole new way. Going in to the field of interaction design, I was nervous for the copious amounts of research I was promised. However, this class has allowed me to enjoy it.

• This process taught me a lot about conducting an interview: how to keep the interviewee engaged, how to stage an interview in a conversational format, and how to guide a conversation under these circumstances.

• I am proud of our report! This has, surprisingly, been one of my favorite projects in my collegiate career.

• I learned tons about solo travel. I am excited to embark on my own travel journey.

I must extend a big thank you to my team. With their help, this project exceeded my expectations. Thank you!