Do you work in the travel industry? Have you been keeping tabs on recent developments? Before the outbreak of the Wuhan coronavirus, a survey was done on travel trends that Singaporeans had expected for 2020 by online booking platform Agoda.
Please bear in mind that these expectations were conveyed before the outbreak of 2019-nCoV and the closure of our borders to China, which might affect the desire of Singaporeans to travel at all.
Passport-free travel
Singapore has one of the more advanced airports in South East Asia. At Changi Airport, passports and fingerprints can easily be scanned to get through immigration. However, during a recent trial at T4 in December, iris and facial recognition was tested for identity verification, which is much faster compared to the current system and also eliminates any issues with fingerprint verification. Because of this, 50% of Singaporeans see a future that has passport-free travel in it.
More convenience
Up tp 54% of Singaporeans expect checking in through a mobile app, being able to skip the line for registration, and downloading their room key to go to their rooms right away to be common practice this 2020.
Eco-friendlier choices
Travellers all over the world want to make eco-friendlier travel choices this year, including 25% of Singaporeans. This can possibly be attributed to the recent closure of places close to home due to rehabilitation, such as Boracay in the Philippines and Maya Bay in Thailand.
More trips to domestic destinations
Up to 40% of travelers aged 35 to 44 years old and 42% of travelers aged 55 years old and above have expressed interest in exploring more of their own territories this year.
More international trips
Up to 53% of Singaporeans plan to make more international trips this 2020 with Zurich topping their travel wishlist followed by Kyoto and Osaka, both in Japan.
The travel data in this article is from YouGov Singapore. It was conducted online from December 12 to December 18, 2019 with a sample size of 16,383 adults aged 18 and above. Will the outbreak of the 2019-nCoV affect travel expectations? We keenly await future survey results.
