70% of Australians “too scared to travel”, but are they wrong?
Skyscanner data highlights how COVID-19 has dampened our travel hunger.
New research from online travel agency Skyscanner has found that 44% of Australians are gearing up to travel overseas in the next year. With many intending to travel in the next 7-12 months.
However, 7 in 10 Aussies are discouraged by the difficulty of understanding their options and 52% of respondents to Skyscanner's survey of 1,000 Australian adults said clarity on travel guidance would help them book international travel.
While international travel is allowed for citizens (and for visa holders from 1 December), it can still be confusing as to which countries you can travel to from Australia.
Skyscanner's interactive map provides users with up to date information on the entry requirements and lets potential travellers easily see where in the world they can go.
Since its launch, the live travel map has been used over 38 million times. The map is colour coded and real-time alerts are available to help travellers stay up to date on their favourite destinations whether they have already booked or are planning future trips.
What are the rules for international travel?
The hesitation for international travel is easy enough to understand; travel in a post-COVID world looks quite different to how it looked before. There are extra costs and more pre-departure requirements but that doesn't mean it has to be a nightmare.
The old rules of planning ahead and doing plenty of research still apply.
Finder has already de-mystified the rules for travelling internationally, from quarantine rules to vaccine requirements, according to which airlines have already or will start resuming international flights.
Some countries, including Singapore, Fiji, Indonesia and Thailand, have also made travel insurance a mandatory requirement. However, only a handful cover COVID-related events. From the 34 policies we looked at, only 3 partner brands include some COVID-19 protections.
Finder travel insurance expert Gary Ross Hunter said, "For peace of mind, it's a good idea to take out travel insurance as soon as you book your trip. It means you can be covered for events that lead to cancellation costs before you even start your journey.
"Some travel insurance can also cover you for medical expenses if you catch COVID, trip rearrangement costs if you or your host gets COVID, and if you're unexpectedly forced into quarantine during your trip."
Where are people looking to travel?
Brendan Walsh, Australia country manager at Skyscanner told Finder that the company saw "an 89% increase in flight searches to Singapore following the announcement of the Australia and Singapore travel bubble opening."
"Destinations topping the search list for Aussies are the big destinations for visiting friends and relatives who are looking to reunite with their loved ones over the holidays such as international cities including New Delhi, London, Bangkok, Singapore and Los Angeles while domestic hot spots such as Sydney and Melbourne made the list," he continued.
Also in the top 10 were Mumbai, Seoul and Hyderabad. A stark difference from the top 10 most searched destinations for the same period in 2020 which was made up solely of Australian locales.