Tourism & COVID-19 Pandemic
A brief look at European Travellers’ Habits & Expectations
01/07/2021
Author: Oliver
The COVID-19 pandemic brought about an unprecedented global social, economic, and public health crisis that is impacting the lives of many in several ways. Undoubtedly, one everyday activity that has been significantly transformed by the pandemic is tourism - not only to the immediate travel restrictions that were set up to reduce viral transmission but also to new habits of tourists as traveling is gradually resumed.
Preparing for the long-term impacts of this transformation is particularly important for countries like Malta, where the tourism sector is a pillar of the local economy. Because of this, Marketing Advisory Services set out to identify some of the intentions and expectations of European tourists, through a research exercise carried out between Q3 2020 and Q1 2021.
Methodology
A sample of four hundred respondents per wave per country was collected from the six European countries from which, before COVID-19 high number of visitors arrived in Malta annually, namely the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Germany, Poland, and the Netherlands.
To collect responses during the different stages of the pandemic, data collection was split into three phases or waves. The first data collection wave was carried out during Q3 2020, the second in Q4 2020 (as Europe was hit by the so-called ‘second wave’ of infections), and the third as the first vaccine programs were being rolled out in Europe, in Q1 2021.
Data collection was conducted through an online survey targeting respondents over the age of 16. Screening questions were used to ascertain that the sample would be made up of only respondents who travel at least once per year, and who also intended to travel within 12 months from the time of participation. The sample was representative in terms of age and gender. The same research instrument was used for all countries during the three data collection waves.
The following are some of the main highlights that resulted from this research project:
During the pandemic, travel restrictions have changed how holidays are planned. While the number of respondents who stated that they were planning to travel for holidays within one to two months from the time of their response decreased exponentially with time of the study, the number of respondents who stated that they intended to go on their next holiday 3 to 4 months or to 6 months increased exponentially during the three waves.
When asked which countries respondents were considering as their next holiday destinations, the countries with the highest number of mentions overall (by all the six countries during each of the three data collection waves) were: Spain, France, Italy, and Greece.
‘Hotels’ as an accommodation type was clearly and consistently chosen by respondents from all six countries across all three waves. Other popular accommodation types were ‘all-inclusive’, ‘Airbnb’, ‘self-catering apartments’, and ‘bed & breakfast’.
One should not assume that the trends and preferences that may be inferred from the data above are all direct results of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, some of these patterns raise research questions that, if addressed through further research, may be useful in mapping out some behavioral changes that are more specifically bound to conditions related to the pandemic.
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