I’m a mom, entrepreneur, and traveler, trying to live the life of my dreams. At age 50, I auctioned off all my possessions to travel full-time after a transformative trip to Kenya with my daughter. In 2019, I was invited to acquire JourneyWoman, the beloved women's solo travel publication founded by Evelyn Hannon in 1994 to inspire and empower women to travel solo.
I’m now the CEO and Editor of Journeywoman, the world’s first solo publication, founded in 1994. My home base is Toronto, Canada but I try to live in other countries most of the year. I also curate the world’s largest Women’s Travel Directory, which provides women with safe, women-friendly travel experiences.
Evelyn started Journeywoman in 1994 because women’s voices weren’t being heard. She was responsible for helping the travel industry understand that women were important to travel. I would say my experience in travel has been the same as my experience in consulting — you have to be courageous, fearless and provocative. And you have to know how to get things done to the best of your ability with the resources you have. Many people don’t realize that JourneyWoman operates with a small team, just four of us. But we know how to collaborate, innovate and move quickly.
I relaunched JourneyWoman in March 2020 and have been on a learning curve ever since. JourneyWoman is more than a website, it’s a mindset. We are teachers, role models and mentors. We share our stories with intention and purpose. We ask how we can contribute to the communities we visit, rather than impose our beliefs. We recognize that travel is a privilege, not a right. And we inspire each other to live our best lives. That’s the power of connection – and community.
Being an entrepreneur means you are constantly taking risks, experimenting and adapting. You can’t be successful without understanding the needs of your audience – in my case, women over 50. Very little of my journey has been planned, but I have amazing mentors and advisors, including my family and Evelyn’s daughters, Erica Ehm and Leslie Ehm.
During the pandemic, I found ways to keep JourneyWoman going so that women wouldn’t lose their inspiration to travel again. When our borders opened, I was first out the door, so that I could report back to our readers about what the world was really like. Nothing gives me greater joy than seeing women connect and inspire each other to live the life of their dreams, as I’m doing.
Carolyn Ray
It’s clear from our last survey that women over 50 are not being well represented in the travel industry and this needs to change. Despite their affluence and influence, 70% of women over 50 told us they felt ignored and undervalued. We often think of diversity and inclusion as being related to ethnicity — it’s also about including the perspectives of women of all ages, including accessibility and mobility and representation in photography and appropriate terminology.
This year, I’m expanding our editorial team to include the voices of many women, including Black, Indian, Indigenous, LGBTQ+ and women with disabilities. Similarly, with our Women’s Travel Directory, we’re expanding our travel experiences in the same areas. We don’t sell or operate tours but I’m doing all I can to represent the needs of our audience in our editorial and our travel directory.
I’m always surprised when I see travel events and conferences that don’t include women (and particularly older women), as we represent 85% of all travel decisions. I think the fact that I have created the world’s first Travel Directory for women says something about how women’s needs are not being fully recognized by the industry and how far behind things are.
My other observation is that there’s very little funding for women entrepreneurs in travel. You have to fit into a box to be considered, and because I am constantly innovating, we don’t fit into one box or the other. We are a 30-year old business serving the largest readership for solo women in the world. We survived a pandemic while many other websites and businesses shut down. That’s appreciated by our readers, but not valued by the industry.
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