Global situation dampens sense of security when travelling abroad
Keystone-SDA
The Swiss population’s sense of security when travelling abroad has deteriorated significantly. However, instead of forgoing holidays, travellers are increasingly turning to destinations in Europe.
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A third of respondents rated travelling abroad as rather unsafe, the Touring Club Switzerland (TCS) announced on Tuesday. Last year this figure was 19% – only in the pandemic year 2021 was the level of uncertainty even higher. The data comes from the tenth travel barometer conducted by the JRC Bern research institute.
Nevertheless, the propensity to travel remains high. While 61% of respondents said they were travelling less or not at all in the previous year, this figure recently stood at 49%.
+ Swiss population ‘proud of flying’
However, political instability and wars strongly influenced the choice of travel destinations. Two-thirds of respondents cited this as a decisive factor. As a result, European countries became more popular, while North America lost some of its appeal.
Less demand for car journeys
There was also a change in the choice of means of transport compared to previous years: 51% still named their own car as their preferred means of travel, compared to 67% two years previously. This put the car practically on a par with the airplane (51%) and the train (50%).
The representative study was conducted between February and March. JRC Bern surveyed 1,004 people from German-, French- and Italian-speaking Switzerland as well as 810 members of the TCS.
Adapted from German by AI/ts
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