Over 7 in 10 Singapore residents plan to travel overseas next 3 months: Expedia study
SINGAPORE — Over seven in 10 Singapore residents have plans to travel overseas in the next three months, according to findings by travel agency Expedia.
Four in 10 have already booked their trips, the inaugural Travel for Real study released last Friday (15 July) shows.
The region-wide study, conducted online in early June by research company OnePoll, polled 1,000 Singapore residents who travel for leisure at least once every three years. A total of 4,000 respondents aged between 18 and 45 were surveyed in Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan.
Six in 10 Singapore respondents said they considered it safer to travel as COVID-19 restrictions have eased, and countries have started to reopen their borders with relaxed entry requirements.
Compared with respondents in the other Asian markets, Singapore residents missed overseas travelling the most, with 64 per cent indicating that they "very much" missed the opportunity to travel abroad. Hong Kong respondents were the second highest at 60 per cent, followed by those in South Korea at 47 per cent and Japan at 21 per cent.
More confident
The study also found that over five in 10 in Singapore expressed more confidence in travelling overseas, the highest across the markets. More than half of Singapore respondents also felt that a refundable or flexible booking policy helped to boost their confidence in travel.
The study found that the top five destinations Singapore travellers are looking to visit before October are Tokyo, Seoul, Bangkok, Taipei and Kuala Lumpur.
They are also looking to travel longer for their next trip, with average travel duration of six days, compared with the respondents in Hong Kong (five days), South Korea (four days) and Japan (three days).
“With many travel restrictions easing over the past months, Singaporeans have been inspired to take to the skies once again and fulfil that pent up travel desire," said Expedia Group Asian Head of Public Relations Lavinia Rajaram.
About 27 per cent of the respondents aged between 18 and 25, and 29 per cent of those aged between 26 and 35 have booked their trips, while 33 per cent of those aged between 36 and 45 have made theirs, according to the study. Younger Singapore travellers take a longer time to observe situations before planning their trips.
For Singapore residents who were still hesitant to travel in the upcoming months, the most common reason given was budget, as travel costs have increased. Younger travellers are more likely to cite budget as among their top concerns.
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