SiteMinder report: travel desires outweigh safety concerns for the post-COVID hotel guest
New research by SiteMinder, the global hotel industry’s leading guest acquisition platform, has found that safety concerns among travellers in Australia, Germany and the United States are not enough to deter domestic holiday plans this year.
SiteMinder’s Changing Traveller Report 2020: Special COVID-19 Edition series, based on the survey responses of more than 500 holidaymakers in each of the three countries, shows that ‘well-promoted health and safety practices’ rank as the top consideration for American travellers and the second-top consideration for those in Australia and Germany when it comes to accommodation. Yet in spite of the consideration trumping even the need to secure low prices, over 54 percent of Australians, 61 percent of Germans and 48 percent of Americans say they plan to travel within their country this year.
The findings mirror the World Hotel Index, which shows that of all bookings made to the countries’ hotels this month-to-date, over 95 percent are for stays this year.
SiteMinder’s regional director for EMEA, Clemens Fisch, says the findings are testament to the important role that travel will continue to play for many consumers post-COVID.
“Our research affirms beliefs that strong health safeguards will be needed across international markets during life after coronavirus. However, if accommodation providers can instil confidence among their guests, through the way they implement and practise health and safety at their properties, then they can be assured that consumer fears will take a backseat to the human desire to travel,” says Clemens.
COVID-19 has had a particularly pronounced impact on the mindsets of Americans. As U.S. fatalities approach 120,000, the percentage of U.S. respondents who don’t plan to ever travel again due to the virus almost doubles that of the other two nations, at 14.1 percent, compared with 7.6 percent of Australians and 7.1 percent of Germans.