Happily, more and more people are getting COVID vaccines every day. With that, people are more willing to look at what they’re going to do with their time. Travel is a priority fora lot of people, but not necessarily everyone.
Of course, this has been happening for the entire pandemic. Everyone has been on a spectrum of sorts, ranging from those who felt comfort in the maximal safety of staying in their homes nearly all the time, to those who chose to “live their lives,” potential of catching or spreading the deadly virus be damned, and everywhere in between.
However it appears that even once people have gotten their COVID shots and are fully vaccinated, there’s still a spectrum of how much people are willing to do. Joe and I were two weeks past our Pfizer shots by the end of March, but still didn’t venture out to eat at an indoor restaurant until early May.
After that, the ice was broken and we’ve been “all in” – we went to a small movie theater 2 days after that, I’ve since been to 2 more indoor restaurants, and we’re looking forward to flying (FLYING!) to Iceland in July and Texas in August.
Other friends who have been fully vaccinated for as long as, if not longer than us, still haven’t made their baby steps into “normal life” again. And yet OTHER other friends have been flying for months already.
None of these are right or wrong; everyone’s comfort level is different. But it does bring up a good point that if there was ever a time to travel, now is the time!
Edelman Trust Barometer has spent the better part of the past 20 years polling thousands of people on their trust in core instutions. And they say that, as of their survey conducted a few weeks ago, 65% of people described themselves as being “still in a pandemic mindset”.
In travel terms, it means that that only 16% of the respondents said they would feel safe flying in commercial airlines, 23% would be OK with staying in hotels and 28% would want to dine indoors in restaurants.
And in each of those cases, those tallies rose only a little bit among those who had been fully vaccinated.
“Vaccines have produced just an average 5% bump in return-to-life readiness. Nearly 7 in 10 (of all respondents) are concerned a new outbreak is around the corner,” the survey commentary concluded.
Well heck, if only 16% of 16,800 would feel safe traveling and 23% would be OK in hotels, now is definitely the time to travel!
Seriously, as more people become more comfortable with the thought of venturing out, the more people will. Which means more and more people, who have put the vast majority of their vacations on hold for well over a year, will also be trying to go to the same places at the same time.
So go now, before the masses get there! 😉
The survey involved 16,800 respondents from 14 countries around the world: Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, Britain and the United States. They were questioned online between April 30th and May 11th. Click here to download a PDF of the full results.
Feature Photo (cropped): Marco Verch Professional Photographer & Twitch Streamer/ flickr
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
