Global: Travel costs ‘significantly higher’ for many consumers

Product shortages and the increased cost of living have disturbed markets all over the world. In a new YouGov survey, we ask consumers across 18 markets in which sectors they’ve noticed a significant increase in product prices over the past six months.

Nearly three-quarters of global consumers picked food (74%) as the segment where they have seen significant cost rises, while nearly half (47%) identified household products. Roughly a third of consumers have noticed an increase in the cost of cars (33%), clothes and electronics (31% each). Travel products/services feature lower down on the list of products that shoppers are now finding more expensive, but more than a quarter of consumers (28%) are already seeing significant price rises.

Individually, a few markets are much more likely than global respondents to say the same is true.

Around 45% of consumers in UAE and India find travel products and services cost a lot more now. The rest of the Asian markets are more divided in their opinions with around a third of consumers in Singapore (33%) and Indonesia (29%) saying the same, whereas consumers in Hong Kong (14%) and China (13%) are least likely to find an increase in the prices of travel products/services.

The attitude among North American markets around cost rise is more uniform. Canada and America both register around 33% of consumers who think likewise. Slightly fewer, but still around a third of Mexicans (32%) are also in agreement.

Over in Europe, Poland registers around two in five consumers (40%) who say they have noticed an upward trend in prices. The rest of the European markets are less likely than global consumers to say the same. Slightly more than a quarter of Britons (27%) and Spaniards (26%) have observed a shift to higher prices. The share steadily decreases among consumers in other European countries.

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Methodology: The data is based on the interviews of adults aged 18 and over in 18 markets with sample sizes varying between 514 and 2036 for each market. All interviews were conducted online in March 2022. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples.