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Women's Web
Kirby's Korner · August 6, 1999

While writing an article on family travel resources on the Web for my newsletter, Interactive Travel Report, I recently visited several Web sites aimed at women that have travel resources. The best of them show how, even in a commercial environment, the Internet can build a sense of community, although community members may be spread around the globe.

They also raise the question of what a travel Web site aimed at men would be like.

Three of the best Web sites for women are Women.com, iVillage, and BabyCenter. From its name, of course, BabyCenter should draw both a male and female audience. The producers have wisely chosen to focus on the reality rather than the ideal.

All three are a bit too commercial for my taste. BabyCenter, for example, has areas of the site dealing with topics ranging from car camping to eating vegetables, each sponsored by a company with an interest in the subject. Women.com says it would like to do the same thing. I have to wonder how unbiased the information being presented can be.

In other sections of the sites, you'll find reviews and trip suggestions. Disney World and other central Florida locations play exceedingly strong roles in the sites, even to the extent that BabyCenter urges parents not to take small children to the home of the Mouse.

Women.com has subsections arranged by topic, on trips dealing with the outdoors, spas and resort, romantic travel, and other types. All sites let you query travel experts (though none, of course, bring the wealth of experience you can get from my colleagues by clicking on the upper left-hand corner of this page).

At iVillage, you can even purchase travel. Women.com could not be specific because of federal securities laws -- it is in the middle of going public -- but it is apparent that a purchasing option is being considered there, too.

The drawing card of all three sites, however, is their sense of community. In the same way Usenet news groups allow folks to "talk" directly to the world, the three Web sites encourage interaction.

Now this is a tricky concept. Many Web sites encourage interaction. It's a great way to bring people back to your site, and it gives site producers a good look at the topics their visitors are interested in. But it's exceedingly difficult to do well, and many sites seem to pay lip service only to the idea.

Of the three women-directed Web sites, Women.com does the best job of encouraging interaction. On virtually every page, and for nearly every topic, you'll find encouragement to talk back to the site, and to the world at large. The site continually encourages participation, from asking visitors to complete a simple poll, to urging them to ask questions, to encouraging them to share their experiences in a longer form.

This encouraging to share experiences is what got me wondering about a travel Web site aimed at men. Would we be encouraged to talk about our trips? Somehow, I don't believe so.

What would we say? We'd talk about ball scores. We'd complain about how rough the trip was, secretly bragging that we survived. We'd argue over which destination is best, and over how tough the airplane trip was.

Would the site contain a section on romantic travel? A cruder variation, perhaps. On spas and resorts? Only if it decidedly wasn't family-friendly.

I mean this tongue in cheek, of course. Some of the best travel writers are men, and we participate actively with others when we have an outlet, as on Usenet. But the stoic, stolid stereotype dies hard.

David Kirby is the editor of the Interactive Travel Report. His column appears on Sunday. You can reach him at dbkirby@pressroom.com.