After a spring of travel restrictions, large parts of Europe have now begun to open up their borders. The shipping company Stena Line with 18 ferry lines in Europe has therefore taken the temperature of its customers throughout Europe to see if attitudes to travel and modes of transport have changed.

“We see that there is a great desire to travel in the rest of Europe as well as in Sweden. But it is also clear that the pandemic has affected how far you want to travel and that issues related to your own safety are high on the agenda,” says Carl Mårtensson, Press Manager at Stena Line .

• The willingness to travel remains strong and 78% of respondents answer that they want to travel as much as before, or more, despite COVID-19. The same figure applies to the whole of Europe as in Sweden.
• The trend shows that people want to travel within Europe (44%) or to a neighboring country (42%). Only 1% state that they do not want to travel at all at the moment.
• The most popular destinations for Swedes are Germany (34%), Denmark (22%) and Poland (14%). Spain, Portugal and Southern Europe also attract. Sweden as a destination also tops the list for, among others, Danish, German and Polish tourists.
•  When choosing a mode of transport, more people prefer ferry and car over flight, bus and train. As many as 63% of Swedish respondents say that they prefer a ferry to a flight in the wake of COVID-19.
• The ongoing pandemic has also affected the Swedes' view of their own security. The ability to breath fresh air both indoors and outdoors (84%) and to move freely and socially distance oneself (81%) ranks high. Clear information about how the company handles security around COVID-19 is important according to seven out of 10 respondents.
• Vacation travel accounts for the majority of travel right now, but visiting family and friends is also an important travel reason for many after months of travel restrictions. 

Facts about the survey:

The survey was conducted through an email survey sent to more than 1 million of Stena Line's customers in 11 European countries at the end of June 2020. A total of 84,309 respondents answered, 17,972 of whom were from Sweden. One respondent in each country was rewarded with a traveller's check of SEK 5,000/EUR 500.