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Sun, Nov 16, 2025 | Jumada al-Awwal 25, 1447 | Fajr 05:16 | DXB 
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A $500 billion opportunity? How women-only spaces are reshaping the Gulf economy
A surge in demand for privacy, safety, and community is transforming women-led ventures into a powerful, commercially viable economic vertical across the GCC
At 7 am, the gates to Al Bateen Ladies Beach Club in Abu Dhabi open. Women trickle in with their iced matcha lattes and woven beach bags for as little as Dh25 on weekdays or Dh40 on weekends. Veiled women get a stretch of sea to themselves without cameras or men; just sunlight, chatter, and the sound of kids playing in the shallows.
Across the UAE, municipalities are expanding women-only beaches to meet cultural and religious preferences for privacy and modesty. From Abu Dhabi to Sharjah, these government-supported spaces make leisure accessible without compromise. They’re affordable, family-friendly and aligned with local values. They’re also becoming business hubs in their own right, drawing vendors, wellness operators, and local brands that see opportunity in serving a growing, loyal customer base.
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That demand for privacy and community is spilling into new sectors. Across the Gulf, women-only and women-first spaces are emerging as a wider pocket of opportunity that extends far beyond leisure. Brands are already testing this logic: Kintsugi Space in Abu Dhabi launched as a women-only wellness members club, Fitness First opened women-only gyms across Saudi Arabia, and The Lana by Dorchester Collection introduced an exclusive ladies-only spa day, with privacy packaged as “prestige”.
Women boost the economy
What’s long been true in retail, especially fashion and beauty, is now taking shape across travel, wellness, and entertainment. From the Dana Beach Club in Saudi Arabia to the ladies-only Talise Spa in Jumeirah, women-first experiences are evolving from social experiments into serious business. Developers, brands and event organisers are discovering what female audiences have quietly known for years: when spaces are designed for women, they fill up and they stay booked.
The same demand that fills beach clubs on a Saturday is now driving entire entertainment calendars. Platinumlist, one of the region’s largest ticketing and entertainment platforms, says women now make up 43 per cent of all ticket purchases, up from less than 20 per cent two years ago. That growth is visible across the calendar. In Riyadh, the Creative Women Forum brings together businesspersons and entrepreneurs for panels and networking sessions. In Dubai, the Women Convention Forum combines workshops and wellness programming that attract attendees from across the Gulf. Even fitness events like Les Mills Live Riyadh are seeing more women participate. What began as niche gatherings has become a steady stream that now anchor parts of the Gulf’s women-only economy.
The lifestyle surge
That growth is driving a wave of new programming built around women’s interests and independence, from fitness festivals in Riyadh to professional forums in Dubai. “The whole region is seeing a surge in companies built around female-led travel,” said Cosmin Ivan, CEO of Platinumlist. Globally, women now account for more than half of all solo travel, according to Grand View Research, and the women-only segment is forecast to triple by 2033 as demand for privacy, safety, and autonomy grows. According to Ivan, the Gulf is becoming a natural testing ground for this shift. Legal reforms, infrastructure investment, and a new class of independent female professionals are driving regional demand. “We believe the women-first leisure segment is already showing signs of becoming a self-sustaining vertical in the Gulf,” he said. “You can see it in the data and in the way organisers are building programmes specifically around women’s interests.”
The trajectory of the Gulf’s women-first economy mirrors the region’s wider push to diversify — fast, data-driven and unapologetically commercial. Reports suggest that women-first travel and leisure businesses in the region have expanded by more than 230 per cent in recent years, fueled by the rise of specialised tour operators, fitness retreats, and networking events. “Organisers and partners are starting to recognise this category as commercially viable,” Ivan said, “It’s no longer a niche; it’s a defined audience with real economic weight.”
A tailored approach
According to Afnan Bin Khulaif, Platinumlist’s Customer & Service Support Manager in the GCC, the platform’s growing female user base is reshaping how it communicates and markets events. “We run constant experiments to understand what works best for different audiences, from tone of voice and visuals to placement and messaging,” she said.
That means moving away from one-size-fits-all campaigns towards tailored communication that prioritises comfort, privacy, and values that resonate with women in the region. “For women-only events, we make sure that our messaging reflects a sense of safety and belonging,” Bin Khulaif added.
Behind that language is data-driven strategy. Platinumlist has built tools to segment audiences by gender, interest, and location, allowing organisers to target specific demographics more precisely. In Saudi Arabia, where gender-specific marketing requires extra care, this precision helps ensure that the right message reaches the appropriate audience. It’s not just about promoting an event, she explained. It’s about understanding how women engage, which also includes how they discover and ultimately make purchases that impact these businesses.
The change isn’t just about econom aics, it’s about mobility. Since Saudi Arabia lifted travel restrictions on women in 2019, more are getting passports, planning trips, and booking experiences independently. The reform, part of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 agenda, created a new kind of consumer: women who are driving demand across the Gulf’s leisure and tourism industries. For platforms like Platinumlist, that independence has become both a social shift and a business opportunity.
Travel blogs like Against the Compass and Explore Worldwide now highlight both Saudi Arabia and the UAE as safe, practical destinations for solo female travelers, challenging old stereotypes and offering clear guidance on how to explore the Gulf with confidence. Globally, the female solo travel market was valued at $262.6 million (Dh2.4 billion) in 2024, according to Grand View Horizon; it is projected to grow nearly 15 per cent annually through 2030. In Saudi Arabia alone, the tourism authority said women made up 44 per cent of all visitors last year which is a sign of how legal reform and cultural openness are redefining who travels, and who spends, across the region.
As regional GCC and larger tourism opens up, the lines between leisure, travel and lifestyle are blurring. For many women, a weekend trip to Dubai or Jeddah now includes business meetups, fitness sessions and curated retail, proof that female mobility is becoming cultural and commercial currency.
Bin Khulaif added that the same transformation is visible in the UAE too, where investments in infrastructure, transport, and women-only venues have made leisure more accessible and inclusive. “Simultaneously, growing investments in infrastructure and safety, from women-only venues to better public spaces, have made leisure more accessible,” she said. “What we’re seeing is not just economic empowerment but cultural permission and personal agency, the ability to decide, book, and attend on your own terms.”
Cross-border travel is becoming one of the clearest signs of women’s growing mobility and spending power in the Gulf. More women are booking tickets for concerts, forums, and lifestyle events beyond their home cities, with Riyadh, Dubai, and Bahrain forming a new regional circuit. “Our region is highly interconnected,” Bin Khulaif explained. “For many large-scale events, up to 60 per cent of ticket sales come from outside the host country, and on average, cross-border purchases account for 15 to 20 per cent of total sales.”
Women-centric brand campaigns
That trend is especially visible among women seeking experiences designed for them, from wellness retreats in Dubai to professional forums in Riyadh, signaling a regional market that’s as mobile as it is lucrative.
A big part of capturing this growing segment will come down to how brands communicate. What was once treated as a corporate social responsibility exercise has become a full-fledged business strategy. Vlada Lomova, CEO of PRHub.ae, said companies are moving beyond token “empowerment” campaigns to build women-first messaging into the core of their branding. “A few years ago, campaigns aimed at women often fell under corporate responsibility,” she said. “Now, we’re moving away from vague empowerment language towards real value — community, inclusion, and experience.”
That evolution is visible in the boom of women-only ventures. Hotels are rolling out exclusive wellness retreats, fitness clubs and beach lounges are selling privacy as luxury, and event organisers are building entire calendars around women-led forums, retreats and expos. For PR firms like Lomova’s, the task is no longer just about promoting these ventures, but shaping the identity behind them, crafting narratives that feel authentic to women’s lives. “The language that resonates now is conversational and grounded in real experience,” Lomova said. “It’s not about promising empowerment; it’s about showing relevance, about how a product or experience fits into a woman’s life.” A regional shift is already visible in campaigns across the Gulf. In Saudi Arabia, LuLu Group’s women-only stores were promoted through community-driven messaging focused on privacy and ease, while Dyson’s Firsts campaign spotlighted Emirati women in STEM and entrepreneurship, tying innovation to identity rather than aspiration. “Instead of saying, ‘You deserve this luxury,’ the most effective campaigns say, ‘Here’s how this serves your goals,’” Lomova said.
To her, the future of PR in the women-first economy will depend on credibility, cultural fluency, and a willingness to move beyond traditional marketing. The brands finding real traction are those building trust through storytelling, community, and shared experience rather than top-down messaging. “Take Huda Kattan from Huda Beauty,” Lomova said. “She grew a global empire by speaking directly to her audience on social media, making them feel part of her journey. That kind of loyalty is something traditional advertising can rarely match.”
The role of technology
That same logic, designing with intention, is also guiding innovation in tech. Access itself has become infrastructure, and women’s growing independence is changing how travel and mobility platforms build their systems.
One startup embracing the opportunity is Visarun.ai, a Dubai-based tech company that offers clients a platform that works to automate the visa application process for employees. It uses AI to automate most of the visa process, cutting through the red tape that often slows regional travel for entrepreneurs and professionals, many of them women building cross-border lives and careers. “The region is losing over $500 billion due to the underutilisation of women’s potential,” its founder, Alena Lakina, said, “The growing mobility of women in the region represents a new economic wave. A class of independent, mobile professionals is emerging, shaping ecosystems for travel, relocation, and business.”
By making movement faster and simpler, startups like Visarun are turning technology into infrastructure — the kind that enables participation, not just travel. It’s another signal that women’s mobility isn’t a side effect of reform, but a part of the Gulf’s economic engine. That same momentum is transforming how women build and where they do business. The rise of women-only spaces has opened a new layer of opportunity. What began as a response to cultural and religious preferences has evolved into a network of commercial ecosystems where women create, invest, and lead on their own terms.
Nikita Sachdev, founder and CEO of Luna PR, said what’s unfolding across the Gulf is no longer niche. “We’re past the ‘niche’ stage,” she said. “Women are not just participating in business, they’re leading industries that didn’t even exist a decade ago. In Web3, fintech, and media, I’ve seen women build from the ground up with a mix of resilience and precision that’s reshaping how leadership looks in this region. It’s not a ‘female movement’ anymore, but an economic one.”
Sachdev said women-led ventures, including women-only spaces, are driving a new kind of growth that blends profitability with purpose. “What’s unique about Dubai and the region in general is that it doesn’t just empower women, it gives them access to investors, infrastructure, and global visibility,” she said. “That creates a multiplier effect.”
Dubai’s ecosystem also gives women the room to scale ideas. “Dubai’s greatest strength is that it rewards ambition, not background,” she said. “The support for innovation makes it one of the few places where a woman can move from idea to execution quickly. Add to that the safety, inclusivity, and international network, and it’s no surprise that women from every corner of the world are setting up here.”
Across the Gulf, women-only ventures are now part of a wider play for growth. What started as a private stretch of sand has grown into a regional movement, one where women aren’t just participating in the economy, they’re building it, one beach, one business, and one idea at a time.
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