Having gone through restrictions, closures and bans, the global travel and tourism industry has seen some of the biggest disruption with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Along with it came cancelled plans, new ways of working and new traveller concerns.
As some travel restrictions begin to lift and vaccinations are distributed, people around the world are beginning to look ahead to a new normal.
So, Kantar has conducted an online survey among people globally, asking about their personal and business travel plans and their feelings towards travelling in today’s environment. Explore some of the UK findings here as well as additional answers and countries within the complete report.
Are people in the UK planning to travel for holidays this year?
Just over half of UK respondents (54%) have a holiday planned in the coming year. This is 11% lower than the holiday plans of global respondents.
Of those who do have plans in the next 12 months, 55% of these are rescheduled holidays or vacations due to the pandemic causing them to change their original plans.
Where do people in the UK intend on holidaying next?
2 in 3 of these travel plans for the next year are for domestic holidays within the UK (67%).
For those travelling overseas (33%), Europe is the most popular destination, with 2 in 3 Brits planning trips within their own continent. 16% have plans to travel to Asia and 10% to North America.
Do UK business travellers have travel plans over the next six months?
27% of UK respondents report to have work travel planned in the coming six months and for 15% these will be overseas trips. This is considerably lower than the global average, with 46% of respondents across all surveyed markets reporting to have business travel plans and 28% to international destinations. Are people in the UK supportive of vaccine passports?
71% of UK respondents support a vaccine passport - documentation to prove that a person has received a Coronavirus vaccine – for international travel this year. 11% are not sure if they support or oppose this concept.
What post-pandemic travel concerns do people in the UK have?
Looking ahead to after the pandemic, the greatest concern for people in the UK, reported by 37% of respondents, is being stranded if further lockdown restrictions are re-introduced whilst they are travelling.
The secondary concerns reported by a third of UK travellers are price inflation and the possibility of cancellations (31%).
Get more answers
For more findings from this study, access the complete Community Report: Connecting with Travellers Across the Globe. Find additional answers on past and future travel plans, willingness to pay premiums, travel concerns and more.
Editor’s note
This research was conducted online among 7,796 people across eight global markets: US, UK, France, Germany, India, Singapore, Mainland China and Brazil. Respondents were sourced from Kantar’s LifePoints research panel, only accessible through the Kantar Profiles Network. All interviews were conducted as online self-completion and collected based on local census distributions.