Nearly 70 percent of people say restrictions have impacted quality of life as new survey reveals frustration at quarantine measures.
A new survey has revealed the levels of frustration people across the world have felt at not being able to travel during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The world was plunged into lockdown a year ago and travel restrictions have been in place ever since with strict quarantine rules and border closures designed to curb the spread of the virus, which has killed around 2.6 million people.
But according to a new poll by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), many people feel frustrated with the loss of freedom to travel with nearly 70 percent of people saying their quality of life is suffering.
Half of people surveyed believe air travel restrictions have gone too far and 84 percent of people believe that COVID-19 will not disappear, and we need to manage its risks while living and travelling normally.
Despite the high levels of frustration, passengers are showing a greater degree of confidence in the return of air travel as international borders slowly begin to open up.
57 percent of people expect to be travelling within two months of the pandemic being contained. 81 percent believe that they will be more likely to travel once they are vaccinated. People are still put off travelling by quarantine measures with 84 percent saying they will not travel if there is a chance of quarantine at destination.
“The top priority of everybody at the moment is staying safe amid the COVID-19 crisis. But it is important that we map a way to being able to re-open borders, manage risks and enable people to get on with their lives. That includes the freedom to travel,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s CEO.
“It is becoming clear that we will need to learn to live and travel in a world that has COVID-19. Given the health, social and economic costs of travel restrictions, airlines should be ready to re-connect the world as soon as governments are able to re-open borders.”
De Juniac called quarantine “the showstopper”.
“As testing capacity and technology improves and the vaccinated population grows, the conditions for removing quarantine measures are being created. And this points us again towards working with governments for a well-planned re-opening as soon as conditions allow,” he said.
The survey involved 4,700 people from Europe, the US, Asia and the Middle East.
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