How travel demand changed after weeks of lockdowns

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COVID-19 Travel Sentiment Monitor

In comparison with a similar survey LuggageHero conducted last month, the April results overall show an ongoing eagerness to travel, but a slightly higher degree of caution.

The unprecedented effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on travel continue to be greatly felt throughout the world, with people of course altering their current travel plans.

But even as stay-in-place restrictions have been added or strengthened in many countries, travelers still remain optimistic about hitting the road again later this year. Their customer survey was conducted April 5-9, 2020, via online forms and ensured gender and age balance, as well as geographical representation.

Current Travels

Nearly 60% had a trip planned for April or May and most of them (91%) had already canceled those trips or were about to. Adding to the economic impact, more than half were planning to travel with at least one other person.

Future Travels

In a big show of optimism, 77% said they were sticking to those plans as long as their home bases or destinations were not under a quarantine. That means that, for now, there is only a 23% impact on the travel industry from June to December.

When asked about the travel period of June to December, 56% already had trips on their calendars, and more than two-thirds were planning to travel with at least one other person.

Change in scenery

Out of the people saying they will still travel from June to December, nearly half (42%) say they will not change their original destination. However 32% replied that they would now attempt to avoid big cities and public transportation and instead focus on parks and the outdoors.

Nearly half of the respondents were still planning to travel abroad, while 44% said they would consider replacing international travel with domestic travel in 2020.

Only 8% of worldwide respondents said they would now not travel at all in 2020, compared with 17% in the earlier survey. Perhaps the longer would-be travelers are forced to stay indoors, the more they think about future travels.

Caution is on the increase

LuggageHero conducted a similar survey three weeks earlier. Now only 35% of participants say they are sticking to the same travel budget for 2020 that they started with before the coronavirus hit: 31% will reduce their holiday expenses up to 40%, while 34% of respondents say they will cut their budgets by more than 40%, this being a 8% drop from the results 3 weeks ago, perhaps signifying further tightening of the belt.

Respondents to the April survey still show a great willingness to travel in the future but a slightly higher degree of caution overall. Most significantly, the previous survey showed that 47% would stick to their same travel budget. Within just 3 weeks, that number had dropped by 12%.

In the matter of changing from overseas travel to domestic, the number has grown from 18% in March to 44% in April. Destination decisions changed slightly, with 2% more people (from 30% to 32%) wanting to avoid urban destinations in search of places focusing on nature and the outdoors.