Lebanon, N.H. – Gender and age drive the biggest distinction among travelers, according to results of the 2020 Annual Global Rescue Travel Safety Survey.  

“The Global Rescue Travel Safety Survey reveals unexpected travel safety concern disparities between the sexes and among the generations,” said CEO Dan Richards.  

  • Men are about 50% more concerned about family travel than women.  
  • Travelers are “very concerned” about travel to the Middle East, but respondents between the ages of 40-59 are a third more concerned than their younger counterparts.  
  • Forty percent of travelers under age 40 believe “health/medical issues” are the greatest threat while touring and exploring, compared to only 29% of travelers between 40-60 years old. 

Among the top survey findings:  

Likelihood of Travel: Consistent with results over the past several years, more than 95% of respondents are likely to travel in 2020, either domestically or internationally.  

Travel Concern Gauge: Thirty-five percent of respondents are “concerned” or “very concerned” about their travel safety in 2020 while 13% are “not concerned” at all. For the last three years, roughly 85% of respondents expressed some degree of concern for travel safety.  

Regional Fears: The Middle East is the region most troubling to travelers with 56% reporting they would be “very concerned” making a trip there. Trips to Asia and Africa were the next most worrisome for travelers. Sixty-four percent of travelers said they were “not concerned” about going to North America or Australia.  

“I think the Middle East gets a bad rap,” said a Global Rescue Operations expert and former Navy SEAL. “There are places you just can’t go like Syria and Iraq. But Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Israel, the UAE and other areas there are great. The Middle East is a good place.” 

Business or Pleasure Travel: Family and personal travel were nearly three times more concerning than business travel. Less than 13% of respondents consider business travel a concern or very concerning compared to 30% of travelers thinking about family or personal travel. One respondent explained the reason for the result.  

“If I’m involved in an incident or accident on family travel, it will likely affect not only my safety but that of my family members. On a business trip, my family of course will be affected by my injury or death, but they likely will not be with me and will not be involved directly in the calamity,” Bob M. of Arkansas said. 

Greatest Travel Threats: Travelers listed health/medical issues and street crime as the greatest personal threats while traveling, followed by terrorism, traffic accidents, civil unrest, and – more than halfway down the list – cyber security. One Global Rescue security expert believes cyber security should be a higher concern saying, “I’m worried about cyber security. It takes less than two minutes to draw everything off your laptop or smartphone. Public Wi-Fi is not secure.”  

A survey respondent concurred.  

“Cybercrime is a big concern, especially identity and credit card theft. I have had both hacked while traveling and the pain and suffering to try and fix the mess it creates was staggering. I am to the point of using a single travel credit card to ensure I can contain any cyber theft issues,” James B. of Texas said. 

Will You Change Travel Plans Due To Your Concerns? Nearly all respondents plan to travel in 2020 and most (85%) are concerned about travel safety. Yet, overwhelmingly (91%) say those concerns will not impact their plans. We discovered travelers are planning and researching and taking precautions so they can continue to enjoy their adventures. According to one respondent, you simply need to minimize your hazards.  

“In my case, my overseas travel will be via reputable airlines and reputable cruise company, traveling to places with low risk percentages of incidents. I still, though, subscribe to Global Rescue as my ‘back up’ because I feel assured with Global Rescue that if anything happened, in the States or abroad, they would be my best ally,” said Laurie R., Texas 

 

The 2020 Annual Global Rescue Travel Safety Survey was conducted January 22-28, 2020. The study results are based on a survey of 2,400 Global Rescue members.