90% of Canadians Are Writing Off Their Summer Vacation Plans

Almost 9 in 10 Canadians expect their summer vacations plans to be disrupted by COVID 19, new Caddle research shows.

An estimated 30% of Caddle’s 12,000 daily survey respondents reported they had vacation plans in the next 6 months. Of those, 88% say they now expect their plans to be disrupted.

This new data shows the degree to which Canadians are facing up to the long term implications of the coronavirus pandemic. Canadians with trips as far forward as September are uncertain they will still happen.

It isn’t just pending trips that are being disrupted. The Caddle data suggests there could be lasting implications for how we travel.

Does this mean less overseas travel?

Already we are seeing that the pandemic could affect how and where Canadians travel even after the crisis has passed.

We asked our panel if they agreed that they would travel overseas just as they did before once things got back to normal. Here’s what they told us:

The results are striking. Only 1 in 3 of our panel agreed that they would continue traveling overseas as they did before. At the other end of the spectrum, 31% indicated that they would be reluctant to travel overseas as they had done before.

The remaining third of respondents are still up for grabs, with 35% reporting they were neutral on the issue.

Clearly travel companies will have their work cut out to convince people to take overseas trips again — even once restrictions have been lifted.

Will we see a rise in staycations?

These attitudes could lead to a boost to the domestic tourism industry. Just under 40% of our panel agreed that they would take more vacations within Canada as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Again, we saw a large proportion of people with no strong option yet suggesting again an opportunity to win even more people over to the concept of a staycation.

What will get people flying again?

The high level of uncertainty right now means people are understandably reluctant to book flights. What could airlines look at to convince people to make bookings?

The Caddle Panel was clear on what airlines need to offer with their cancellation policy. They want flexible policies offering full refunds.

Given the option of lower initial fares, credit fares, or being placed on next available flights, 8 in 10 of our panel chose a full cash refund as the cancellation policy that they wanted to see.

What are Caddle Rapid Response Insights?

The data is based on 10,000 daily responses in the Caddle app. Anyone can join the panel. Just download the Caddle app to get started.

As Canada experiences the impact of COVID-19, we’ll be expanding and diversifying the topics we look at to understand the effects.

For a more details breakdown of this or any of our other COVID data, contact insights@caddle.ca