March 11th, 2022, Fiona Robinson
Travel is expected to pick up further in the next quarter, with one in five planning to take a trip between April and June
Despite attempts to transition to living with Covid-19, recovery for travel remains slow, impeded by the recent onset of an Omicron wave. Latest data from YouGov Global Travel Profiles – which tracks consumer demand and attitudes towards travel across 25 markets – reflects only a slight improvement to travel intention compared to last year, despite the launch of more vaccinated travel lanes. Less than half of Singapore residents (46%) plan to take holidays, business, or other overseas trips in the next 12 months, as compared to two in five (41%) who said the same last year. The proportion of residents who do not plan to travel during this period is also comparable (42% in 2021 vs 40% in 2022).
When it comes to trip frequency, those intending to travel are most likely to take just one (32%) or two trips (32%) in the next year. Fewer than one in five plan to take three trips or more (16%), and another one in five are unsure (20%).
Travel is expected to pick up in the second quarter (Apr-Jun), possibly due to the longer school holiday periods then, and may peak in the last quarter, perhaps because of the year-end festive season.
Although the trend remains largely the same, travel intention has improved since last year. Furthermore, fewer Singaporeans also say that they do not plan on going for any vacations, dropping from a quarter in 2021 (27%) to just over one in ten in 2022 (11%), highlighting the recovering appetite for travel among residents.
What then, is holding Singaporeans back from travelling? Travel restrictions (58%), health risks (55%), and safety (40%) are the top three considerations, while the price of travel (28%) and price of accommodations (19%) come in fourth and fifth. This indicates that majority of travellers could place greater importance on health and safety than price, and travel brands and tourism boards can attempt reassuring them about these concerns once local situations improve, to bolster tourism.
Additionally, data from YouGov DestinationIndex reveals that Singapore residents are more likely to consider travelling to destinations in the Asia-Pacific region, with the top five destinations being Japan (43.1 points), Taiwan (33.5 points), New Zealand (30.3 points), Australia (29.5 points) and South Korea (28.9 points). The only European destinations in Singaporeans’ top ten are Sweden (24.9 points), Switzerland (22.4 points) and Norway (19.5 points), in sixth, eighth and tenth place respectively.
Notably, Singapore has not implemented any vaccinated travel lanes with the top three destinations, but travel to these countries can be expected to pick up if such arrangements are put in place.
Methodology:
YouGov Global Travel Profiles tracks global consumer demand and attitudes towards travel across 25 markets, offering a holistic view of the travel market, including granular insights on brand consideration, preferred locations, booking methods, accommodation and transportation preferences. Learn more about YouGov Global Travel Profiles.
collects data on hundreds of destinations around the world every day. All figures are collected over a 52-week period and rounded to the nearest whole number.