Holidaymakers begin planning for domestic travel despite COVID-19 fears

Visitors wearing masks and face shields enjoy themselves at the Farm House tourist area in Lembang, West Bandung regency, West Java on June 14, 2020. Antara/Novrian Arbi via The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network

JAKARTA — Holidaymakers have begun planning trips, a positive sign for the hard-hit tourism industry, but the financial concerns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic-induced economic downturn might affect the recovery, a study from travel website Tripadvisor shows.

The study, published on June 10, shows that 68 percent of customers surveyed were considering making travel plans, while hotel searches are also on the rise.

“We are already seeing early signs of recovery in the travel-planning habits of millions of customers all over the world, who are actively researching and dreaming about their next big trip,” the report reads.

The searches are mostly focused on domestic travel in three months’ time, as more than half of respondents plan to travel domestically within the next six months, the research found.

According to the findings, Tripadvisor projects that the recovery of tourism, which has been hit hard by travel restrictions, will happen in stages. The stages include decline, plateau and emergence phases, before the return of domestic travel and international travel in the final phases.

However, the study also warns that the tourism recovery might be affected by consumers spending power and the negative perception of their financial stability due to the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The research shows that 40 percent of respondents stated that their household would be financially worse off over the next 12 months. Consequently, more than half of the respondents said they were likely to take fewer trips than the year prior.

“As the pandemic eases, the travel sector will not be able to operate as it did before, in part due to continuing interventions from governments, but also as a result of changing consumer expectations and spending power,” the report explains.