In the first week of August, a study called ‘Unravel Travel: Fears & Possibilities in a Post Coronavirus (COVID-19) World’, jointly conducted by data provider Dynata (America), social research agency Blackbox Research (Singapore) and language partner Language Connect (England) was released to the world.
This study was conducted to understand people’s preferences, expectations and sentiments related to travel, in a post-COVID-19 world. 10,195 people from across 17 countries were interviewed for the study.
The study also measured the Travel Confidence Score of countries, by considering: how well prepared they feel about their country re-opening its tourism and leisure activities and how comfortable a person is to travel internationally in the next 12 months.
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Study findings
Indians:The study reveals that Indians are the most confident in the world to travel abroad, on a vacation, once it is allowed. Also, they top the list of people who are the most eager to travel internationally in the next 12 months.
Indians also top the list of people most eager to travel internationally in the next 12 months. 77 per cent of Indian interviewees said that they are keen to travel, followed by Thais (70 per cent) and Indonesians (60 per cent).
Singapore: When it comes to post-lockdown travel, Singapore is the most favoured destination for people living in India, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong and the Philippines.
Cautious: People from countries like Sweden, New Zealand, Japan, New Zealand, the UK and Canada have the most cautious attitude towards international travel.
Saurabh Sardana, CEO, Blackbox Research thinks that each country’s score reflects a balancing act between a number of different considerations – the perceived importance of tourism to a country’s economy, national management of COVID-19 cases and even past experiences of similar epidemics. “Notably, New Zealand’s low case achievement has led to the country’s more cautious attitude towards international travel,” he was quoted by ANI.
Worst-hit: The nations where tourism appeal has taken the biggest hit due to the pandemic are China, Italy and the US. This is being attributed to the news reports by international and mainstream media on these countries’ COVID-19 crisis management.
Sardana attributed wary travel sentiment for the US and China due to key events like Black Lives Matter protests, foreign worker visa freeze and Beijing’s second wave of infections.
Contactless travel:The new benchmark for travellers is contactless travel. 76 per cent of respondents shared that their preferred travel destinations would be countries that offer more contactless experiences.
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Travellers are looking to minimise contact during transfers. 66 per cent prefer to travel in their own vehicles for road trips between cities or countries. Only 18 per cent are okay travelling in planes, 9 per cent are open to renting a car or a taxi and 7 per cent of respondents were willing to board a bus and train.
Future of travel: The respondents are most keen to have these in the future when international travel resumes: touchless lavatories (43 per cent), e-boarding passes (44 per cent), contactless journeys from airports to hotels (40 per cent), no more middle seats in transportation (36 per cent) and digital health passports (35 per cent).
