Travel depends on vaccines, measures in place: Surveys
Singaporeans, like many of their counterparts around the world, are keen to travel but remain cautious over the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to Tripadvisor's recent Consumer Sentiment Survey, which polled more than 2,000 consumers across the United States, Britain, Australia, Italy, Japan and Singapore, 95 per cent said measurements in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus is a deciding factor on whether they will travel.
Other factors include the existence of travel bubbles (50 per cent) and flexible cancellation policies (80 per cent).
A Tripadvisor spokesman told The New Paper before yesterday's announcement of an air travel bubble to allow quarantine-free travel between Singapore and Hong Kong: "(Although) there hasn't been a significant increase in travellers planning trips to Hong Kong, we foresee search traffic picking up when the travel bubbles are confirmed and travellers are able to make definitive plans."
In another survey of 1,000 Singaporean travellers conducted by online travel agency Booking.com, 63 per cent said they would not travel internationally until they have been vaccinated, while 67 per cent said they will travel only to countries that have implemented vaccination programmes.
More than half (52 per cent) of those surveyed were also sceptical as to whether a vaccine will truly make travel safer.
Mr Nuno Guerreiro, regional director of South APAC at Booking.com, said: "The Singapore-Hong Kong travel bubble marks a significant first step towards the recovery of the travel industry.
"The new travel corridor presents a solid opportunity for the revitalisation of travel and tourism, as well as closer collaboration between governments and industry stakeholders across Asia." - HEDY YANG
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