New Study Shows Americans Comfortable Traveling Among COVID Variants

Image: Traveler wearing a face mask at the airport. (photo via Viorel Kurnosov/iStock/Getty Images Plus)
Image: Traveler wearing a face mask at the airport. (photo via Viorel Kurnosov/iStock/Getty Images Plus)
Janeen Christoff
by Janeen Christoff
Last updated: 8:45 PM ET, Wed January 12, 2022

A new survey from the healthcare industry highlights Americans' attitudes toward travel.

Currently, there are more than 700,000 new infections reported on average each day, according to Reuters, but new data suggests that one in three Americans is willing to take these numbers in stride and continue to travel, shop, dine and more.

Research from HealthCareInsider found that 34 percent of Americans say they are already comfortable traveling, sixty-one percent are comfortable shopping, and 52 percent are fine with drinking and dining indoors.

One key data point reveals why this may be: 60 percent of people surveyed said that travel is the most common life event put off by the pandemic. People are tired of waiting to see family, friends and the world.

Interestingly, older generations are more comfortable than younger generations with travel at the moment. Thirty-two percent of Boomers/Gen-X are already comfortable traveling compared to 26 percent of Gen-Z/Millennials.

Still, 20 percent of those surveyed do not think they will be comfortable traveling until 2023 or later.

Thirteen percent said they think they will feel comfortable traveling by spring 2022, while 18 percent anticipate traveling again in the summer of next year.

One in five (20 percent) indicated that they don't think they will be comfortable traveling until 2023 or later. Relatively few Americans say they'll never travel again at five percent.

Travel is also the most common answer when those surveyed were asked what they are looking forward to most when the pandemic is over.

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Janeen Christoff

Janeen Christoff

Managing Editor, Custom Content

Janeen Christoff caught the travel bug while living in London, England. After two years on the road, she settled in Los Angeles...

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