Singaporeans expect travel resumption by H2 2021 but remain cautious amid Covid-19: poll

WHILE Singaporeans are among the most optimistic in the region about when international travel will return, they are also among the most cautious when it comes to whether they would actually begin travelling.

A UOB survey found that eight in 10 Singaporeans expect that international travel will resume fully by the second half of 2021.

Across Asean, consumers in Singapore and Vietnam were the most optimistic that travel would return by mid-2021 (both 81 per cent), followed by Indonesia (76 per cent), Thailand (75 per cent), and Malaysia (74 per cent).

That said, only one in five respondents from Singapore said they would embark on a business trip, or go on a holiday the first opportunity they got, UOB noted.

Meanwhile, in Vietnam, more than three in five said they would begin business travel as soon as possible, while one in two, or 54 per cent of Vietnamese respondents, said they would want to get away for leisure sooner rather than later.

The UOB Asean Consumer Sentiment Study was conducted by Blackbox Research in July this year among 3,510 individuals aged 18 to 65 in five South-east Asian countries. It polled 1,030 people in Singapore, and 2,480 across Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam.

Separately, another poll by satellite company Inmarsat found that Singaporean passengers show greater confidence in flying. Asked to rate their confidence around the safety and health precautions currently undertaken across all touchpoints throughout the journey, Singaporean respondents recorded an aggregated score of six out of 10, which was higher than the global average of 5.55, Inmarsat noted.

In addition, 60 per cent of Asia-Pacific passengers surveyed by Inmarsat expect to "feel fully ready to fly within the next year".

David Coiley, Inmarsat Aviation's vice-president for Asia-Pacific, said that this reveals Asian travellers are more confident about the safety of the passenger journey than their counterparts.

He added: "This reflects prevailing conditions in the region, where the spread of Covid-19 has largely abated across most markets, relative to other regions experiencing a resurgent wave of infections and further lockdowns. Given the level of consumer confidence, the outlook of the aviation industry in Asia-Pacific is looking optimistic."

Nonetheless, almost half of Singaporean respondents from the Inmarsat poll expect to travel less frequently by any means and 43 per cent plan to fly less in the future.

Of those surveyed in Singapore, 74 per cent described their behaviour towards the pandemic as "highly cautious", compared with 48 per cent globally.

Regionally, nine in 10 airline passengers from the Asia-Pacific are not expecting to return to their previous travel routines once the pandemic is over, Inmarsat added.

Inmarsat's Passenger Confidence Tracker survey reflects the views of about 9,500 respondents across the globe, including 2,500 from Singapore, Australia, South Korea and India from the Asia-Pacific region.