Featured image: Diana Eden on a recent safari to Zambia, Africa | Photo provided by Diana Eden

Join us on March 5 to meet inspiring women over 50

JourneyWoman is thrilled to announce Diana Eden, 86, as the recipient of the 2026 JourneyWoman Evelyn Hannon Solo Travel Award. Now in its third year, the JourneyWoman Awards were created in 2024 to celebrate and honour women over 50 in the travel industry, both travellers and entrepreneurs. 

The JourneyWoman Awards were created in response to JourneyWoman’s  2022 global study, “The Influence and Affluence of Solo Women 50+ in Travel”, where 70% of women over 50 said they felt undervalued and ignored by the travel industry. In 2025, to better educate the travel industry about women 50+ to travel, JourneyWoman conducted “Invisible No More: The Ageless Adventuress” which showed that the Women 50+ travel market will more than double from US$245 billion in 2025 to US$519 billion by 2035 in the US and Canada.

“I’m absolutely thrilled to honour Diana Eden and celebrate her many contributions as a role model for healthy aging and to JourneyWoman,” said Carolyn Ray, CEO, JourneyWoman. “I can’t thank our readers and community for highlighting so many incredible women — both solo travellers and entrepreneurs — who are truly making a difference through travel. As the world’s first solo travel publication, I feel strongly that we should be a place that uplifts women over 50, and reminds the world that age is not a number, it’s a state of mind.” 

There are four JourneyWoman Awards, three of which rely on nominations from women travellers, vetted by expert judges in each category. The winners of these will be announced at a virtual International Women’s Day celebration on Thursday, March 5, at 2 pm ET, which will also be broadcast on JourneyWoman’s YouTube channel. This year’s finalists for the three remaining awards include women from Canada, the United States, New Zealand, Kenya, Nepal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Portugal and the United Kingdom.

Meet Diana Eden, 2026 Recipient of The Evelyn Hannon Solo Travel Award

Eden was selected by JourneyWoman CEO Carolyn Ray for her ongoing contributions and active involvement with  JourneyWoman and for demonstrating the values of Evelyn Hannon, who founded JourneyWoman in 1994.  Eden has been a Contributing Writer for JourneyWoman, focused on travel for women over 80, since 2020. A former dancer, actress, Emmy-nominated costume designer, and author, Diana was born in England, raised in Toronto, Canada, lived and worked in New York, Los Angeles, and now lives in Las Vegas.

In 2025, Diana published her second memoir called “Getting Old and Other Indignities:  A Memoir of Aging with Adventure and Style”. She occasionally acts in local films and is a lively speaker who has many stories to tell from her colourful past and engaging present. Her so-called retirement and move in 2008 to Las Vegas brough her more costume design for films and stage shows in “the entertainment capital of the world”, a professorship at UNLV (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) teaching tomorrow’s filmmakers about costume for film. In 2020, she wrote her first memoir, called “Stars in Their Underwear: My Unpredictable Journey from Broadway Dancer to Costume Designer for some of Hollywood’s Biggest Stars“, featuring stories about George Clooney, Reba McEntire, Diana Ross, and Betty White.   Read more about Diana’s new book here.

Previous winners of the Evelyn Hannon Award include Joy Fox, now 90, in 2024 and Joyce Perrin, now 90, in 2025.

2026 JourneyWoman Award Finalists

All finalists were nominated by JourneyWoman readers, and reviewed by expert judges.  More than 180 nominations were received this year for the three award categories, including the Solo Travel Wisdom Award (for an individual female traveller over 50); the Woman-Owned Business Award (for a woman over 50 who owns or leads a travel business); and the Integrity in Hospitality Award (for a woman over 50 who owns a hotel or hospitality company). Sponsors this year include Aurora Expeditions, Explore! Worldwide, wmnsWork, Women Travel Leaders, hertelier, Bouteco and JourneyWoman. 

Award 1: The JourneyWoman Solo Travel Wisdom Award

The JourneyWoman Solo Travel Wisdom Award is for an individual female traveller over 50 who generously shares her wisdom gained through travel, and uses her voice to inspire others, challenges status quo thinking and exemplifies the values of a JourneyWoman – kind, generous, grateful and courageous.

Process and judges: This woman is nominated by JourneyWoman readers, with the final selection by the past two winners of the Evelyn Hannon Award, Joy Fox and Joyce Perrin, and the 2025 winner of this award, Adriane Berg.

Finalists:

• Caryl Eve Dolinko, Canada  https://www.caryldolinko.com/world-travel.html
• Katherine Leamy, New Zealand https://www.the5kilotraveller.com/
• Cassandra Washington, USA  https://www.sustah-girl.com/

Award 2: The JourneyWoman Woman-Owned Business Award

The JourneyWoman Woman-Owned Business Award is for a woman over 50 who owns or leads a travel business. It is intended to support small and medium-sized businesses, entrepreneurs and women over 50 who have followed their passion and purpose to create a business in service to women. This audacious entrepreneur works to build a more equitable, sustainable and prosperous world for all through travel.  We had over 150 nominations in this category. The winning recipient will receive complimentary consulting and memberships from by wmnsWORK, Women Travel Leaders and JourneyWoman.

Judges: Alessandra LoTufo-Alonso, Founder & Managing Director, Women in Travel CIC, Iris Serbanescu, Founder, wmnsWORK,Catherine Gallagher, Co-Founder, Women Travel Leaders.

Finalists

• Lucky Karki Chhetri, Co-founder, 3 Sisters Adventure Trekking, Nepal https://www.3sistersadventuretrek.com/
• Carla Geyser, Founder, Blue Sky Society Trust, South Africa https://www.blueskysociety.org/
• Francesca Elisabetha Owens, Founder, Travel From the Inside Out, USA-Italy  https://bohemiare.org/ 

Award 3: The JourneyWoman Integrity in Hospitality Award

The JourneyWoman Integrity in Hospitality Award (for a woman over 50 who owns a hotel or hospitality company and creates safe, values-oriented, sustainable and memorable experiences. This award honours integrity as a core value, and is given to women who are walking your talk—when your values, words, and actions align, so that there’s no gap between who you are and how you act in this world. The winning recipient will receive complimentary consulting and memberships from Bouteco and feature editorial coverage in hertelier.

Judges: Juliet Kinsman, Bouteco, and Emily Golfischer, hertelier – Women in Hospitality

Finalists

• Monika Fauth, Founder and Director of Banana House & Wellness Centre on Lamu Island, Kenya https://www.bananahouse-lamu.com/

• Dee Gibson, Founder, Kalukanda House, Sri Lanka https://kalukandahouse.com

• Ingrid Koeck, Partner, Torel Boutiques, Portugal https://www.torelboutiques.com/

About the JourneyWoman Awards

The JourneyWoman Awards celebrate the wisdom and influence of women over 50 in travel and present women of all ages with role models, while creating a more equitable and inclusive travel industry. The first new Award, the JourneyWoman Evelyn Hannon Solo Travel Award, was given out on International Women’s Day on March 8, 2024 to Joy Fox, from British Columbia, Canada. 

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.

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