Encouraging News On Summer Travel
A new tracking study has found that travellers’ perceptions of safety are rising across all sectors, from domestic and international travel to lodging, cruising, dining and entertainment, transportation and business travel.
MMGY Global’s Wave 5 of its Travel Safety Barometer report tracks and measures American travellers’ perceptions of how safe it is to engage in specific travel behaviors on a scale of 0 (Extremely Unsafe) to 100 (Extremely Safe).
With all states in the U.S. currently in some phase of reopening and international destinations also reopening, these milestones in COVID recovery appear to be having a positive impact on how travellers feel.
The report found that confidence in the safety of domestic travel overall experienced a 10-point jump, scoring just 34 in May and rising to 44 in June.
International travel experienced a similar 10-point increase, but its overall score is still relatively low at 32. Transportation is on an upswing, with the Transportation Safety Barometer going from 56 to 60.
The study also found that while most respondents still believe travelling by car is the safest form of travel (score of 74), travellers are beginning to report an elevated sense of safety when travelling by other forms of transportation, including domestic air travel and train travel. Respondents ranked the safety of domestic travel at 36 points in Wave 5.
As for business travel, the tracking reported noted that although improved technology, the popularity of video conferencing platforms and the complexities of attending a crowded conference may have corporate travellers reconsidering the need to travel, the increases in business travel metrics in the June results are quite encouraging. Wave 5 detected a 7-point jump amongst travelers who perceive business travel to be safe, going from a score of 29 to 36.
The study also looked at travellers’ confidence in dining and entertainment as well as in lodging safety, with improvements indicated in both of these areas.
Go to www.mmgyintel.com for more.
