Pack Your Bags: Cosmopolitan Just Made Girls Trips Cooler, Easier And A Whole Lot More Fun

80% of all travel decisions are made by women.

This, according to the travel experts at Gutsy Traveler, may not surprise the millions of women who repeatedly find themselves in the unenviable (and often thankless) position of planning a trip. And when this trip involves a group of women, the research, planning, and booking often falls entirely on just one person.

This pain point was not lost on Nancy Berger. The SVP/publishing director and chief revenue officer of Hearst Youth + Wellness Group saw this trend as a huge opportunity.

“Because our brands and our staff are younger skewing, it’s easy to see what’s happening and what the behaviors are with this demographic. One of the things we noticed is these women are in their late 20s and early 30s and are frequently taking trips, like bachelorette parties and milestone birthdays, with their girlfriends. And the thing that was most interesting to me was that there was usually one girl who was in charge of making the plans.”

Research done at their flagship brand Cosmopolitan revealed that the young women in charge of girls getaways were spending on average 16 hours just researching and planning the trip. “There is so much information out there but there is nothing really curated for this demographic. And that was an obvious pain point. That was our ‘aha’ moment because we knew we could solve that.”

Disrupting the Business of Girls Getaways

Last month Cosmopolitan launched CosmoTrips, a platform offering one click access to unique, fully planned, risk-free and instantly bookable girlfriend getaways in cities across the United States. The experiences currently available include itineraries like the Foodie Edit in Austin, the Wine Lovers Edit in Charleston, the Adventure Edit in New York City and the Rockstar Edit in West Hollywood. New trips are currently being added in New Orleans, Miami and Las Vegas and international trips will soon be added in the Caribbean, Mexico and Europe.

What makes this business so appealing is that the one-stop-shop itineraries have all been vetted by the Cosmo editorial team and feature the best places to stay, eat, and play, as well as exclusive perks like a free poolside cabana, free workout classes or a free welcome drink for the whole group (you guessed it, a cosmopolitan!)

Targeting Gen Z and Millennials

CosmoTrips was created with an eye toward Cosmo’s largely Gen Z and Millennial audience of 61 million - a group of mostly young women who have already grown to trust Cosmo. And Cosmo knows its audience and what they want.

Take a look at the Instagram Edit experience in Charleston, where the CosmoTrips team has already identified which cobblestone streets, rainbow-colored historic homes and beaches are most Instagrammable.

Cosmo also understands the demographic’s affinity for Buy Now Pay Later and has partnered with industry-leader Klarna to offer each traveler the ability to Travel Now and Pay Later by splitting the cost of their portion of the trip into 4 interest-free payments.

And what better way to reach this socially native demographic than through influencers, like Insta-famous lifestyle gurus Ayzia James and Samantha Feher.

James, who took the Insider Edit in West Hollywood told her Instagram followers that CosmoTrips takes all the annoyance out of planning your next vacation. “These are definitely the places I would have picked if I was planning the trip myself, but the best part is that I didn’t have to!”

Feher posted a sneak peak of her trip to Austin to her 51,000 Instagram followers explaining, “You literally just pick from a list of @cosmopolitan editors’ favorite destinations, and then THEY curate, plan, and book an entire vacation for you and your best friends—because they know what’s cool, they’re extremely picky about what’s actually worth doing, and they have access to things that most people do not.”

Riding the Wave of (Female) Travel

It appears that Cosmo’s investment in the world of travel was a good one.

Interest in travel, in general, has been on the rise and Berger has seen a large increase in marketing dollars spent by travel companies. In the first half of 2022, for example, ad spend from travel companies increased $2.1 billion, or 83% year over year, according to Digiday. And a survey by IAB reveals that in the second half of 2022, US travel brands plan to dish out 27% more on media spend than initially expected. Of course, this is partly in response to the pent-up demand created during the pandemic, but it also reflects an effort by these travel companies to establish long-term relationships with what many experts now refer to as “the sweet spot demographic” - the younger Gen Z and Millennial customers, who can now often work from anywhere and are therefore more open to travel.

“If you have a group of girls you can travel with, that is gold,” says Berger. And now CosmoTrips is creating a community of these girls, connecting them through hashtags (#cosmotrips) and enabling them to “travel like an editor.” “We take out the risk,” says Berger. “We make it so that you know for sure everything is going to be just right. You’re going to have a great time. It’s going to be perfect.”