AllClear’s Annual Travel Insights Report

Published on: 20 Jan 2021

Read our Annual Travel Report to understand how the Pandemic has affected holidaymakers as the nation entered, emerged and re-entered global lockdown. 

The pandemic outbreak and the travel industry

The travel, tourism and hospitality industry was decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. In July, UK tour operators warned of a sharp drop in bookings to short-haul destinations for the rest of the summer as confidence in overseas travel collapsed after the quarantine decision on Spain.

The months that followed saw a number of travel brands go under with major UK airlines seeking government loans to stay afloat. The UK Government’s decision to quarantine arrivals into the UK for two weeks was also seen as hugely problematic for British carriers, with hundreds of travel firms urging the Government to reconsider its position. Holidaymakers became confused by the advice on which countries were safe to visit and some criticised inconsistent quarantine polices to Portugal and Greece between the Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish and English Governments. Globally, the economic impact of Covid on the travel sector has been profound.

As Britain went into a second national lockdown, economists warned of the exacerbated impact, the CEBR predicting it would cost the economy £1.8 billion a day. At the same time, the vaccines offered new hope around rebuilding travel.

How holidaymaker’s outlook and plans have been affected by  the pandemic

During the second half of 2020, we surveyed more than 6,000 of our own Travel Insurance customers and we commissioned three phases of nationally representative consumer research at key stages of the year:

• The nation as it re-emerged from lockdown
• When we went into the three-tier zones
• As the second national lockdown started.

AllClear’s Consumer Travel Report 2020

We assess how events impacted travel plans, the timescale in which people planned to resume holiday plans, the factors that became more important in making holiday decisions and the new paradigm – the decline of cheap holidays, replaced by a growing focus on quality and safety. Whatever Even with the Covid vaccine, safety considerations that were defined in 2020 will dominate the consumer agenda on overseas travel for some time to come.

In this new AllClear report, we share findings from our research studies conducted over the course of 2020. We also include in this report new data capturing the first reactions to news of a potential vaccine. After an unprecedented year, many have predicted that recovery for the travel industry will be both complicated and lengthy. Our research clearly indicates however that there will definitely be a recovery.