Without COVID-19 vaccine, most Canadians and Americans unwilling to travel: poll

A flight attendant wears personal protective equipment as they walk through the back part of a near empty plane from Calgary which landed in Vancouver, B.C., Tuesday, June 9, 2020. (THE CANADIAN PRESS / Jonathan Hayward)

Vancouver — While COVID-19 restrictions are slowly lifting in many parts of Canada, international travel still isn't recommended, and a new poll suggests most Canadians and Americans aren't willing to travel until there's a vaccine.

The recent online survey conducted by Research Co. says fewer than a third of Canadians would take a flight within their own province. About a fifth are willing to take flights to a different continent, while just 17 per cent said they'd take a flight to the United States.

"The appetite for travel before a COVID-19 vaccine is readily available is low in Canada and the United States," said Mario Canseco, president of Research Co., in a news release.

"North American residents aged 55 and over, who are usually ready to explore and spend, are particularly reticent about all journeys unless inoculation is a reality."

But about 35 per cent of Canadians say they'd take a ferry. That percentage is higher in B.C., where nearly half say they'd travel that way.

It's not just Canadians who are wary of travelling before a vaccine is available, however. Research Co.'s poll suggests 36 per cent of Americans would take a train, while about 35 per cent would take a flight to another state.

But fewer Americans are keen on taking long-haul bus trips or flights to Canada.

And even though cruise ships were hit hard early on in the pandemic, one-in-five Americans polled said they'd take a cruise. Just 13 per cent of Canadians said the same, while only eight per cent of B.C. residents said they'd willingly take a cruise ahead of a vaccine.

Results are based on online studies conducted from July 1 to July 5, 2020, among representative samples of 1,000 adults in Canada and 1,200 adults in the United States. The margin of error—which measures sample variability—is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points for Canada and plus or minus 2.8 percentage points for the United States.