Is travelling currently a risk? The impact of COVID-19 and war in Ukraine

Abstract

The aim of the study is to examine how regular travellers’ behaviour and views regarding international travel have changed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemics and the war in Ukraine. The study includes three research questions 1) how much is travel missed and how do pandemics affect international travel behaviour? 2) how do regular travellers view the danger associated with pandemics and the war in Ukraine? 3) to what extent are future travels perceived as risky? The research is based on statistical data on outgoing tourism and domestic visitor monitoring data analysis, and interviews with 33 regular Latvian travellers. The interviews were conducted during the first quarter of 2022. According to the findings, regular travellers currently feel a lack of excitement about planning trips or international travel experiences. Those who frequently travel for business report a lower level of longing for this experience. The habit of travelling locally has increased due to the lack of international alternatives during the pandemic with restrictions on global mobility. Regular travellers accept the inconveniences caused by the Covid-19 restrictions, but they were afraid and applied self-protection strategies, or even refused to travel entirely, during the first month of the war in Ukraine. Finally, regular travellers are not going to refrain from taking multiple journeys overseas or to Western European countries in the next six months but will avoid travels to zones of military conflict.