Last updated on November 2nd, 2024
Featured image: JourneyWoman’s new book is inspire to inspire women over 50 to follow their dreams | Photo by Envato
New travel book adventurous women over 50, with introduction by Norie Quintos
Some of the most influential women in travel have joined forces to celebrate older women travellers over 50 in a new travel book to be published in 2025. “Never Too Late to Travel: How Women 50+ Are Making the Rules”, will include inspiring stories from active, diverse and disabled women over 50 who are breaking stereotypes, travelling with intention and purpose, as role models for others. Created in honour of JourneyWoman’s 30th anniversary, the book features 30 inspiring women over 50 from around the world and wisdom and practical advice collected from hundreds of JourneyWoman readers, who are among the most experienced and well-travelled women in the world.
Published by JourneyWoman, “Never Too Late” is co-created by JourneyWoman CEO and Editor Carolyn Ray and award-winning photographer and Hasselblad heroine Lola Akinmade Akerstrom. National Geographic contributing writer and former National Geographic Traveler executive editor Norie Quintos has provided the introduction, with contributions from Diana Eden, JourneyWoman’s Women Over 80 writer.
“Never Too Late: The Seekers” digital ebook will be available in November 2024.
“We began talking about this idea in 2022, both of us noticing that women’s voices in travel – particularly mature women – are often not heard or worse, ignored,” said Lola Akinmade. “Clearly, there is work to be done to break outdated stereotypes and provide new and diverse role models for what it means to be a woman over 50 in today’s world – adventurous, empowered and courageous. Our goal is to provoke a conversation and disrupt conventional thinking.”
“This is much more than a book – it’s a movement to show older women that they are seen and that their voices matter,” says Carolyn Ray, CEO, JourneyWoman. “We hope to start a healthy, positive conversation and be a catalyst to accelerate inclusion and diversity in the travel industry and ultimately, in the world.”
Support us by pre-ordering the first digital volume
“Never Too Late” will be published in three digital volumes starting in November 2024. Each volume includes profiles on 10 women over 50. The first digital volume, called “The Seekers”, will be available for purchase for $19.94 in honour of JourneyWoman’s founding year of 1994. Proceeds will be donated to JourneyWoman’s partners including Ally Group (anti-human trafficking), the Period Purse (period poverty and menstruation equity) and wmnsWORK, a tourism accelerator for marginalized women. The second and third digital volumes will be available in 2025, with a printed book to follow.
Volume One: The Seekers
Our first volume honours women who have been at the forefront of change in their chosen careers. They share their sources of inspiration. strengths cultivated through travel and wisdom for their own travels. In this volume, 41 JourneyWoman readers share their wisdom and advice to inspire women to follow their dreams.
The late Evelyn Hannon, Founder of JourneyWoman, the first solo travel website in the world for women, and a catalyst for the female travel revolution (Canada)
Joy Fox, 89, dedicated solo traveller for 69 years and counting, recipient of the first JourneyWoman Evelyn Hannon Solo Travel Award in 2024 (Canada)
Samantha Brown, host of Samantha Brown’s Places to Love on PBS, the Travel Channel’s Great Weekends, Passport to Europe, Passport to Latin America and Great Hotels. (USA)
Jill Heinerth, FRCGS, D. Lit. h.c., Explorer-in-Residence, The Royal Canadian Geographical Society, Author, INTO THE PLANET – My Life as a Cave Diver Explorer in Residence (Canada)
Stephanie M. Jones, visionary founder and leader, instrumental in reshaping the travel and tourism industry to better serve underrepresented small Black and Brown businesses, and recipient of the 2023 JourneyWoman Award for Lifetime Achievement (USA)
Alice Morrison, host, BBC Series – Arabian Adventures: Secrets of the Nabateans, presenter of BBC2’s Morocco to Timbuktu, author, and first woman to walk the Draa River. (Morocco)
Christine Osborne, Author of the iconic solo travel memoir detailing her solo travels in the 1970s, “Travels With My Hat” (Australia)
Anna Pollock, pioneer in the regenerative tourism movement and self-acclaimed ‘constructive non-conformist’, recipient of the 2022 JourneyWoman Award for Lifetime Achievement (United Kingdom)
Lei Wang, the first Chinese woman and the first Asian American to climb the Seven Summits and skied to both the North Pole and South Pole, the so-called Explorers Grand Slam (USA)
Loung Ung, Cambodian-American human-rights activist, Author and co-screenplay writer of “First They Killed My Father” and former national spokesperson for the Campaign for a Landmine-Free World.
The women creating this book
Carolyn Ray, Editor + Contributor: “Ageless Wisdom From Women Over 50”
As the CEO and Editor of JourneyWoman, Carolyn Ray was named one of the most influential women in travel in 2023 by TravelPulse and was the recipient of a SATW travel writing award in September 2023. She leads JourneyWoman’s team of writers and chairs the JourneyWoman Women’s Advisory Council and Women’s Speaker’s Bureau. She is the Chair of the Society of American Travel Writers in Canada, and a board menber, Cultural Heritage Economic Alliance (CHEA).
Lola Akinmade Åkerström, Creative Director and Contributor: “When It Comes to Travel, Age Is Only a State of Mind”
An award-winning author, Hasselblad Heroine and National Geographic contributing photographer, Lola Akinmade was featured on Condé Nast Traveler’s 2024 Women Who Travel Power List. She was named one of the 2023 Most Influential Women in Travel by TravelPulse and won the Newsweek Future of Travel Storytelling Award. Lola has published five best-selling books to date that explore topics related to travel, wellbeing, inclusion and women’s empowerment, including “Lagom; The Swedish Secret of Living Well” and “In Every Mirror She’s Black”.
Norie Quintos, Introduction: “Women Reaching for the Stars: Discovering the Wisdom of Travel”
Norie Quintos is an independent journalist and editor. She is a contributing writer to National Geographic and the former executive editor of National Geographic Traveler. She is also a consultant for the travel industry, advising destinations and travel companies on how to tell their unique stories. Her work focuses on sustainable, indigenous, regenerative, transformational, and responsible travel. She believes in the power of travel to be a force for good and is on the board of the Adventure Travel Conservation Fund.
Diana Eden, Contributor: “Honouring the Women Who Came First”
Diana Eden is a Contributing Writer for JourneyWoman, focused on travel for women over 80. She was born in England, raised in Toronto, and lived and worked in New York, Los Angeles, and now Las Vegas. She is a former dancer, actress, Emmy-nominated costume designer, and now author. She recently published her memoir, “Stars in Their Underwear: My Unpredictable Journey from Broadway Dancer to Costume Designer for some of Hollywood’s Biggest Stars” and is currently writing a sequel, which includes many stories of her travel adventures as a woman over 80.
Why Women over 50?
In JourneyWoman’s most recent global study, “The Influence and Affluence of Solo Women 50+ in Travel”, 70% of women over 50 said they felt undervalued and ignored by the travel industry. Women also expressed concern about the lack of age-appropriate and diverse photography, a desire to see more appropriate terminology to describe older women and more emphasis on mobility and accessibility requirements.
Women over 50 are not ‘old’, but experienced. Not sedentary but adventurous. Not dependent but independent. Not alone but powerful. Not behind the industry, but ahead of it. These are women who challenge convention, follow their own path and wait for the rest of the world to catch up. It’s time they were recognized and honoured, and who better to do it than JourneyWoman.
About JourneyWoman
Founded in 1994, JourneyWoman™ is the world’s first solo female travel resource and one of the most trusted women’s travel brands in the world. JourneyWoman hosts the world’s largest Women’s Travel Directory as a free service to women, providing hundreds of curated and vetted women-friendly tours, retreats, small ships and safe places to stay while supporting small tourism businesses around the world. To elevate women’s voices, the award-winning Soul of Travel Podcast joined JourneyWoman in 2023. JourneyWoman also launched the travel industry’s first Women’s Speaker’s Bureau to share wisdom from women over 50 and accelerate diversity and the JourneyWoman Awards for Women Over 50. To learn more, visit Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. JourneyWoman is a registered trademark of Journeywoman Enterprises Inc.
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So very precious to know you have documents these intrepid women and their journeys. It is rewarding to think they are written about and possibly even able to inspire the young women of today to follow in their footsteps. I shall look forward to reading the book when it is published.
Very best wishes to you all.