In
the immediate aftermath of the foiled London bomb plot, a
TripAdvisor survey of 1,200 travelers showed that nearly half of
the respondents, 47%, said they would avoid U.S.-U.K. travel over
the next two months in light of the terrorist threat.
A few days later,
in collaboration with Travel Weekly, TripAdvisor asked a related
set of questions to gauge the public mood. More than 1,200
travelers were surveyed on Aug. 15 and 16, and this time, a
slightly larger majority, 57%, said they would not avoid U.S.-U.K.
travel, while 43% said they would avoid it.
The survey data
also suggest that while the hassle factor is much in the news, it
is not an absolute deterrent for the vast majority of travelers.
When asked if they would postpone travel to other destinations
because of the additional security precautions at U.S. airports,
82.2% said no, and 17.8% said they would defer a trip.
However, for some
travelers, the hassle factor seems to a bigger deterrent than
terrorism itself.
Nearly two-thirds
of travelers, 64.1%, said they don't plan to avoid traveling for
any reason, but of the remainder, airport hassles loomed larger
than the threat of terrorism did.
Only 15.4% said
they were more likely to avoid travel because of terrorism fears,
whereas 20.6% said they didn't want to deal with long lines and
airport security.
The survey also
revealed a potential marketing problem for U.S. carriers. It has
not been lost on travelers that U.S. airlines seem to have been the
primary targets.
Just over half,
52.2% said they have "some concerns about traveling on U.S. air
carriers internationally but will not change any of my
plans."
However, 14.3% said
they won't travel internationally on U.S. carriers, and 6.7% said
they would avoid U.S. carriers on routes from the U.K.
A little more than
a quarter of respondents, 26.8%, said they had "no concerns" about
using U.S. airlines.
Respondents were
from a TripAdvisor traveler panel who were invited via e-mail to
participate in the online survey. TripAdvisor said participants had
traveled on at least one personal or leisure trip in the past year
and planned to take at least one personal leisure trip within the
next year.