COVID-19, not surprisingly, has replaced crime as the top safety concern of travellers – who also report that current fears of travelling during the pandemic ease considerably after Spring of this year, according to a new survey.

Conducted by New Hampshire-based travel risk and crisis response provider Global Rescue, the poll found three out of four respondents (77%) are less or much less concerned about travel safety for the last half of 2021 (July to December) compared to 2020.

But traveller concerns remain high for the first half of the year with more than half of the respondents (54%) saying they are more – or much more – concerned about travel safety between now and June compared to 2020.

COVID-19 vaccination and open borders are the most important conditions travellers need to ease safety concerns about travelling during the pandemic, according to the survey.

“Traveller confidence is growing stronger, and that’s good news for the travel industry,” said Global Rescue CEO Dan Richards, referring to the international survey of more than 2,100 of Global Rescue’s current and former members.

Seventy percent of travellers responding to the survey expect to go on their next overnight/multi-day domestic trip greater than 160 km from home by June 2021. One out of four are holding off until the last half of the year while five percent will wait until 2022 or later.

Nearly six out of 10 respondents (57%) expect to travel internationally sometime between spring and winter 2021, while nearly a third (29%) do not expect to go on an international trip until 2022 or after; only 10 percent expect to travel abroad before the end of March this year.

According to the survey results, getting a COVID-19 vaccination (47%) and open borders (34%) are the two most important conditions travellers need in place to feel safe enough to travel internationally. Less than four percent of respondents said obtaining negative PCR COVID-19 test results, having access to coronavirus treatments, or acquiring a digital health passport were conditions needed in place to feel safe enough to travel abroad.

Survey respondents revealed potential quarantines (41%) and COVID-19 infection (29%) are, by far, the biggest concerns for travellers planning an international trip. Twelve percent of survey-takers listed trip cancellation as the third major concern.

Last year, respondents cited “crime” as the leading travel safety concern, but the pandemic pushed that fear to the bottom of the list along with getting sick (from something other than COVID-19), accidents, civil unrest/terrorism, lost luggage, robbery, nuclear disaster and cybercrime, each netting seven percent of responses or less.

“Travellers will feel safe enough to plan trips and vacations when they are vaccinated, when borders are open and managed in a predictable way, and when they know they’ll be able to get home if the worst happens,” Richards said.

By 2-to-1 margins, negative COVID-19 tests do not make travellers feel safer compared to getting a coronavirus vaccine. Seventy-three percent of respondents would feel safer during a trip if they had a COVID-19 vaccine compared to only 36 percent who would feel safer if they had a negative PCR COVID-19 test result before reaching their destination.

“Traveller trust in the efficacy of a COVID-19 vaccination understandably surpasses that of a negative coronavirus test since the former prevents against an occurrence and the latter only detects if an individual has been infected by the virus,” Richards said.

Government and health officials from several countries, including the US, Canada and the United Kingdom, have implemented requirements for residents and non-residents to have a negative viral tests before entering their countries. Travellers are closely split over how they would find a testing facility to meet a similar requirement with 21 percent relying on tour operators, travel agents (21%), destination resources (18%), personal investigation (16%), or their insurance provider (9%). Fifteen percent of respondents admitted they don’t know what they would do.

Global Rescue conducted the survey between Jan. 26 and 31, 2021. Participants were asked to reveal a range expectations, behaviours, and safety concerns in anticipation of a return to leisure and business trips domestically and internationally.