Attitudes of Europeans towards tourism
On behalf of the European Commission, Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Ipsos' European Public Affairs conducted a Flash Eurobarometer survey about the attitudes of Europeans towards tourism.
The survey explores Europeans’:
- travel behaviour, including frequency of travel, accommodation preferences, and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on their travel behaviour;
- preferred booking channels and sources of information for making travel arrangements;
- key reasons for selecting a destination; and
- opinions on sustainable travel, including on the ease of finding sustainability or accessibility related information and the preparedness to change travel habits to be more sustainable.
For this Flash Eurobarometer, a representative sample of citizens, aged 15 and over was interviewed in each of the 27 Member States of the European Union. Between 18 and 28 October 2021, 25 714 interviews were conducted over the telephone (landline and mobile phones).
The survey findings show that Covid-19 will likely have long-term impacts on EU citizens’ travelling behaviour and also demonstrate the growing importance of sustainable tourist offers for the recovery of tourism. Key results include:
A large majority of EU citizens expect that the Covid-19 pandemic will have some type of long-term effects on their travel behaviour – 21% expect no long-term impact at all. Respondents are especially likely to think that the pandemic will lead to:
- them having more attention for health and safety measures (49%);
- them having more holidays in their own country (38%); and
- them travelling less overall (34%).
A large majority of EU citizens (82%) are prepared to change some of their habits to support more sustainable tourism, for example, by:
- consuming local products (55%);
- choosing ecological means of transport (36%); or
- by paying more to protect the natural environment (35%).
