Passengers now prefer hygiene, sanitisation to on time travel: Survey

In times of COVID-19, factors such as hygiene, sanitisation and social distancing have toppled ‘on time’ travel as the top priority among frequent travellers.

According to a survey conducted by ‘IntrCity RailYatri’, an inter-city mobility network, a whopping 71% of the 20,000 respondents indicated that they would drop plans for leisure travel, including those to mark festive occasions.

‘On time’ travel, which used to be the top priority among travellers, has been pushed to the fifth position after hygiene and sanitisation, social distancing, comfort and ticket cost.

The survey also found that over 31% respondents were stuck in wrong cities due to the lockdown and the top priority for them was to get home immediately.

A surprisingly large (38%) travellers displayed a high level of optimism regarding the return to normalcy. Around 35% were unsure and 25% of the participants believe that it will be a while before life goes back to the way it was.

The survey is a compilation of responses and sentiments of users across the Metros, Tier-1, and Tier-2 cities of India. It was conducted between April 15 and May 7 among travellers in the age group of 18 years to 52 years.

The findings highlight that bus and train travellers were optimistic of travel in next three months as opposed to domestic air travellers.

As many as 59% respondents said they would switch to online ticket bookings for bus travel to adhere to social distancing norms, dealing a huge blow to last-minute sales by agents and touts at popular boarding points.

“The survey has brought forward some very interesting insights in the decision-making pattern of customers in a post-COVID-19 market. Our intention behind this activity was to gain deeper insights into the evolving mindset of the inter-city traveller,” Kapil Raizada, Co-Founder, IntrCity said.