Planning a trip? Ask a woman

It’s official: women are expert planners. Research revealed today by Multimap, the UK’s specialist online mapping service, shows that women excel when planning a trip. Increasingly, they are using the wealth of information available on the internet to plan trips and think of everything in advance, from booking hotels and sightseeing to printing off directions and scheduling rest stops.

Commissioned by Multimap, the ICM research, which asked 2,000 people about what makes a good journey, from a trip to the shops to an event or holiday, also found distinctions by age. Young people are more likely to ‘phone a friend’ for directions than use a map, whilst men use online maps less often than women

The research concluded that women aged 25 to 34 are the best at planning trips. These, ‘Passionate Planners’ are fun, confident sociable women who think ahead to ensure the journey is well-planned and stress-free.

Men are also good at planning, but they take a more functional approach. They are more likely to use a map to plan a business meeting than a social event. Identified as ‘Functional Mappers’, they are typically male and aged 25-34 and just want to get from A to B as quickly as possible.

As we get older, the joy of planning increases with 51% of over 65’s saying they love the planning experience, compared with a third of 18-34 year olds (33%). 41% of travellers claim that planning a journey is more enjoyable than the journey itself. Over the half of us enjoy planning what to do at the destination and 44% like choosing the route.

Can’t Find It, Won’t Find It

Planning ahead reduces the traumas of travel. Almost half the people questioned (47%) said getting lost was the biggest source of stress on a journey. This was followed by lack of local knowledge for 40% and the absence of a clearly planned route for 30% of us, whilst boredom annoys a fifth of travellers.

Bad planning has lead to an argument for more than one in three (39%) travellers. It often results in people going hungry or without a bathroom break (17%) and a fifth of us have been completely lost over an hour. In many cases bad planning simply ruins the trip – 4% of people have given up and gone home and 6% have sworn they are ‘never going away again’!

Even though more than half the people surveyed have had to stop and ask for directions, a third (36%) of us just hate doing this, including almost half (49%) of 25-34 year olds. Women and the older generation are less reluctant to ask for help.

Jim Cruickshank, General Manager of B2C at Multimap, explained,

“Thinking about a journey in advance reduces potential stress and saves time. Our research reveals that women are great at planning: they think ahead so that they can have peace of mind to enjoy the trip.”

Cruickshank continues, “The ‘passionate planners’ highlighted in our research are influential, confident and sociable and they actively seek enjoyment and empowerment. They are at the heart of the family or a group of friends and often take on all the organising. They trust websites like Multimap to help them plan the route as well as to look for inspiration with suggestions of restaurants and a National Trust visit along the way.”

Donna Dawson, renowned social psychologist, said:

“Women are natural planners and organisers. This research reveals that women like to seek fun and plan trips to include pleasure for everyone. They are better able to look at the whole picture and often have lots of people relying on them to consider all their different requirements. Finding out about local areas and pre-empting difficult situations makes them feel more in control.

“In contrast, Men are single-minded linear thinkers and focus on getting from A to B as quickly as possible. They see a journey as a problem they need to solve and maps as a way to support rather than inspire them. Asking for directions makes them feel as though they have failed, which is why they’ll stay lost for over an hour or even give up and go home before admitting they need help.

“Men are able to do A-B. But they often fail to smell the flowers on the way,” she added.

Other types of planners identified include the ‘Online Followers’, who are generally older women (45+) who are good at planning, but fret about it more. They do use online mapping sites but are less inclined to take advantage of all their functions and features.

‘Traditional Dippers’, on the other hand, prefer a more conventional paper map. They’re strictly A-B, strictly by the book: the book being a well-thumbed road map kept behind the passenger seat.

The survey showed that online maps are now the most popular method of navigation with 88% of the people surveyed saying they have used them. The main reason for their popularity is because they are free and people aged 25-44 years old are most likely to use them. Almost half the women surveyed (45%) said they like the extra information online maps provide.

Multimap offers a wealth of information for travellers from door-to-door travel directions and a range of street-level maps of Europe, USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, road maps of the world and aerial and bird’s eye photography. As well as links to location information; and services such as hotels, restaurant and entertainment booking and local business listings, a mashup with Wikipedia highlights interesting locations and local history.