Intrepid Travel recently expanded its purpose-led portfolio with the launch of three new Women’s Expeditions across Peru, Cambodia and Bhutan, as demand for immersive, women-focused travel continues to surge.
Megan Henderson, global head of Marketing, Flight Centre Travel Group recently returned from one of the latest itineraries, the Nepal Women’s Expedition led by local female leaders alongside Intrepid and other Flight Centre leaders.
Designed to break down gender barriers and create tangible opportunities for women in tourism, the trips departing from September this year, champion women-led experiences and support women-owned businesses while delivering culturally rich adventures for travellers.
What motivated you to join this Women’s Expedition in Nepal?
It was a combination of travel/culture curiosity and personal pull I couldn’t let pass me! We’re so lucky in the travel industry to help design, market, sell and experience travel and I’ve been lucky enough to have some pretty special experiences over the years, but nothing that has been made by women, for women, like this trip.
How did travelling in an all-female group change the dynamic of the experience?
There was a kind of openness that emerged quite quickly within the group. Conversations went deeper and faster than they might have otherwise. People were just present and open. What stayed with me was how that psychological safety translated directly into how we engaged with everything around us; the landscape, the local communities, porters, each other. It reminded me that the make up of a group isn’t just a logistical detail, it’s something that fundamentally shapes the experience you create.
Was there a particular moment or interaction that stayed with you?
There were two experiences that I keep returning to, and on reflection, they had more in common than they first appeared. The first was visiting the Kapan Nunnery, a place dedicated to providing women who want to devote their lives to Buddhist teachings with a true haven for study and practice. The second was spending time with the Days for Girls team, an NGO doing vital work in menstrual health education, including their mission to end the practice of Chhaupadi. Despite being illegal, this practice persists, forcing women to live in unsafe, secluded conditions during their periods.
Two very different contexts, but the same unmistakable quality in the women I met at both: a quiet, grounded strength. Both were navigating complex structural realities with remarkable grace and purpose. It put a lot into perspective. It was a powerful reminder of how resilient women are, but also of how much we take for granted, and of the real responsibility those of us in the travel industry carry when we bring people into communities like theirs. We are guests in these stories, and we should never lose sight of that.
As a senior leader, what did this trip teach you about equity and leadership?
Equity isn’t one big intervention; it’s a hundred small ones that add up to a culture. It also reinforced that equity looks different depending on where you are and who’s in the room. What it meant for our group of travellers was very different from what it meant for the local Nepali women we encountered, women navigating entirely different structural realities. There’s no single template. I think that’s where leaders sometimes get stuck, waiting for a universal solution rather than asking “what does equity actually look like for this person, in this context, right now?” This trip pushed me to sit with that question more honestly, and to take it back into how I lead.
Why do you think women-only travel experiences are resonating right now?
I think women are increasingly unwilling to compromise their experience to accommodate dynamics that don’t serve them. There’s also a growing awareness (accelerated by broader social conversations) of how much cognitive load women carry when they travel in mixed or unfamiliar environments. Women-only travel removes a layer of that. It’s not about excluding anyone; it’s about the freedom that comes from a space designed around your needs from the outset. In the travel industry, we talk a lot about personalisation, this is personalisation at a structural level.
How does this experience shape the way you think about the industry’s role in supporting women – both travellers and those working in tourism globally?
It sharpened my thinking considerably. The travel industry moves enormous amounts of money through communities around the world, and we have real leverage to direct that in ways that uplift women economically, not just symbolically. For travellers, our responsibility is to create experiences where women feel genuinely safe, seen and challenged in good ways. For women working in tourism, it’s about pipeline, pay, representation in leadership, and telling their stories.
With International Women’s Day just celebrated, what does “Balance the Scales” mean to you after this experience?
It means something more layered to me now than it did before I left. We spend so much time as women advocating for balance for others, pushing for systemic change, driving equity agendas at work, that we can forget to balance our own scales. This trip was a reminder that we have to give ourselves permission to do that. To step away. To invest in our own experience. To be in a room, or in this case, on a mountain, where we are not the ones holding everything together for everyone else.
I think there’s something worth saying publicly about that: we cannot pour from an empty vessel, and yet so many women in leadership are running on empty while championing everyone else’s wellbeing.
At the same time, “Balance the Scales” has to mean more than personal restoration. Standing in Nepal, meeting women whose daily realities looked so vastly different from mine, the gap was impossible to ignore. True balance requires us to look outward as much as inward, using the platform and influence we have to close that gap with real intention. This trip renewed both things for me: my sense of accountability to others, and my commitment to not losing myself in the process.
The group travelled to Nepal with Singapore Airlines and Intrepid Travel.
