New research suggests travelers are growing more hesitant as COVID variants spread.
According to the latest monthly Traveler Confidence Index by Travel Again, 61 percent of travelers feel at least somewhat less confident about traveling due to the prevalence of COVID variants. One in 20 said that the variants cause them to have no confidence in traveling. It was somewhat higher among business travelers. Sixty-five percent of travelers feel at least somewhat less confident about traveling due to the prevalence of COVID variants.
"Since the launch of Travel Again last fall, we've talked about the importance of putting infrastructure in place to protect travelers and the travel industry not just as we recover from COVID-19, but in a way that ensures we are ready for the future health threats that will someday come as well," said Travel Again Co-Founder Mike McCormick.
"As new variants keep coming at us, we are already seeing this play out--and if we don't act now to address the damage it is causing to traveler confidence, it will cause irreparable damage for future travel projections."
The Traveler Confidence Index rates confidence on a scale between one and five with five being ready to travel now and one indicating no confidence. Leisure and business travel leveled off over the late spring and early summer at approximately 3.77. However, that has dipped with leisure travel dipping to a confidence level of 3.55 and business travel dipping to 3.48, which Travel Again denotes as "Concerned But Would Travel."
The research also revealed that there was a drop in travel plans among business travelers. Plans for leisure travelers stayed the same. Business travelers who have made future reservations dropped to 28 percent from 33 percent.
Vaccine uptake among travelers is relatively high. However, more business travelers are vaccinated than leisure travelers, Travel Again's research found.
Eighty-seven percent of business travelers have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and only seven percent indicated that they do not plan to get vaccinated. For leisure travelers, 62 percent said that they have received at least one dose of the vaccine while 17 percent said they have no plans to be vaccinated.
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