We Need to Prevent Sexual Harassment Against Female Travelers

As I was searching through news stories the other day, I came across a commercial skit by Saturday Night Live which aired this past Saturday and was titled, “Leave Me Alurn.” As is often with many SNL-made commercials, I laughed and smiled, but there remained a tightening in the pit of my stomach because the commercial was satirical and below the laughs, the jokes and the silliness of it all is a major problem that female travelers face: harassment.

“Leave Me Alurn” is a fake advertisement for a product called the “alurn,” or a mini-urn that solo female travelers can take on their trips and use it as a means of repelling men who harass them.

The commercial showcases a female traveler on a mountain top and one on a beach, both enjoying time alone, until men approach them to hit on them in bizarre and creepy ways.

It isn’t until the female travelers pull out the urns, under the pretense that they're carrying their father’s ashes, that the men finally understand that they are intruding and run away.

Yes, the commercial is funny, but like many of SNL’s skits, it brings to light a real problem that female travelers face, and that is the threat of safety and comfort from male harassment.

Assault and harassment, especially that of the sexual harassment, are a real threat to women who travel. Just Google, “Women travelers and sexual harassment” and you’ll be introduced to thousands of articles on things women can do to be safe while traveling. For that matter, the U.S. State Department has a section specifically for women travelers on every worldwide country’s travel advisory section.

It’s visible in other ways, too, such as by an entire association called Pathway to Safety International, which is dedicated to helping Americans who have suffered sexual abuse while traveling or living abroad, or research by the Thomas Reuters Foundation that looked at the riskiest cities for women travelers.

Mower.com did a survey in 2018 that took a group of 400 women and found that two in five women reported sexual harassment while traveling, while an AIG Travel survey found that 45 percent of female travelers feel less safe traveling now than they did in the past and 63 percent think about safety always or frequently while traveling.

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This is not even mentioning all the stories of assault, rape, and harassment that I’ve written about for TravelPulse in the four months I’ve worked for the company. I can give a hundred more stats and examples because they’re out there, but I don’t have to because I’ve lived it as a solo female traveler.

I didn’t have an “alurn” that prevented a man in Spain who whistled at me then followed me as he spoke rapidly in Spanish saying things that were sexually aggressive. No alurn kept that guy in Serbia from leaving me alone and asking me out as I was relaxing in the pool at my hotel or stopped that guy who I was not interested in from kissing me at that club in Galway. We didn’t have an alurn when my friends and I were followed by 10 young adults after we got off the subway in Washington D.C. and I had to yell at them to get them to stop following us. And how I wish I had the “lower back spikes” that SNL advertises at the end of the commercial for the countless times I’ve had men touch me without my permission while traveling.

The response to the harassment that women travelers face has been great in some ways, especially within the female traveler community. Facebook groups dedicated to women travelers have sprouted up and members offer each other advice or assistance when it comes to women traveler safety or what to do after a woman traveler has suffered assault overseas.

There are also now female-only tour groups designed for only women attendees with female tour guides and a girl power itinerary, thus creating a space that’s open and safe for women to travel.

And while I am ecstatic that there are those places and organizations that create safe spaces for groups of women travelers or fight for women travelers who are victims of sexual assault, after watching the SNL skit, I wonder if there is something we are missing.

While I’m all for women travel groups and tours, the reality is—I just want to travel alone sometimes, and I want to do it without harassment or the fear of my safety. I also don’t want to be limited where I can go based on my gender, and yet, I must consider that for as the U.S. State Department says, “The truth is that women face greater obstacles, especially when traveling alone.”

I believe the way to change is pre-emption—stopping the assaults or harassment from occurring. Yes, that’s easier said than done, but when I see the #MeToo movement bringing more awareness to the experiences that women face in their daily lives, I hope this will soon cross over into the travel sphere. Perhaps with the #MeToo movement, parents and teachers are now actively teaching their sons or young male students the boundaries that women deserve and how to interact with women appropriately in regular life or while hiking in a national park.

I was also glad to see this week that the Jamaica Tourism Board is doing a full-scale audit of their resorts and attractions after it became public that they have had problems with sexual assault in their resorts and hotels. I wish this audit had not taken so long to occur and at the expense of injustice for so many victims, but I am still glad to see it happen and I hope other destinations follow suit.

Resorts and destinations have the responsibility to make places more secure for solo and non-solo female travelers and if they can implement new practices or technology in their hotels, attractions, and public spaces that ultimately shows their commitment to fighting sexual assault in tourism, perhaps women will be and feel safer. All it requires is commitment and hiring security and sexual harassment and assault consultants.

There are other innovations that are exciting me, too, like the way bars around the world are teaching bartenders how to spot sexual harassment, step in for female patrons when they need it and provide assistance to women through a specialized code in the form of ordering certain drinks.

And that’s what we need—new ideas on how to prevent sexual assault and harassment in the tourism industry before it happens. Female travelers won’t be the only ones who benefit from this.

Destinations and tourism boards can benefit financially from making their destinations safe for women. Research, studies, and surveys show women travel more than men, spend more than men, and make the most travel decisions. Why then wouldn’t you want to entice your biggest travel client to come to your destination by taking the necessary steps to improve their safety and risk from sexual assault and harassment?

Despite the practical built-in phone charger or the water bottle features, SNL’s “alurn” just isn’t going to cut it when it comes to preventing female traveler harassment.

Rather, we need more awareness, more innovation, more creative thinking and more action in the tourism industry to combat harassment and assault before it happens.

Let’s get to thinking.