No exotics or the sea: HOLIDAYS ‘tastes of Slovaks have changed, there is a clear REASON! – Topky

The figures published by the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic are clear. “The number of people over the age of 15 who took part in at least one overnight trip fell by 42 percent year-on-year in 2020.” Less than 2 million Slovaks, ie 43 percent of the population, enjoyed recreation or other forms of leisure time in Slovakia or abroad.

Even a year before, the situation was completely different. “In 2019, up to three-quarters of the population, or 3.4 million people, took part in various travel activities with at least one overnight stay. Roughly 1.4 million people who traveled before the pandemic gave up any travel.” pointed out by the Office.

The reason why people chose to stay at home is clear. “The predominant reason in 2020 was the safety concerns currently associated with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Veronika Töröková, Director of the Department of Methodology and Synthesis of Business Statistics of the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic.

In recent years, they have been one of the main reasons for which we did not cite the financial situation, the motivation for the holiday itself or health and family reasons.

Source: TASR – Milan Kapusta

We stayed at home

However, even those who did not want to refuse their vacation despite the raging epidemic did not rush very far beyond the borders. Exotica and the sea went sideways last year. On the contrary, Slovaks preferred to rest at home. “Therefore, the highest drop compared to 2019 – by as much as 84 percent, was in the group of people combining domestic and foreign trips with overnight stays. Last year, only 223 thousand people completed at least one domestic trip and stay abroad. there were 1.4 million Slovaks, “ pointed out from the Statistical Office. The number of people who completed only a stay abroad also dropped radically, by as much as 55 percent.

Of course, Slovak tourism benefited from the fact that Slovaks preferred to stay in Slovakia in particular. “However, fears of traveling abroad helped domestic tourism. The number of Slovaks over the age of 15 who completed at least one stay in the Czech Republic did not decrease year-on-year last year, it was even 5 percent higher than in 2019,” they stated that this is the only parameter that increased and did not decrease year-on-year during 2020.

Source: Getty Images

At-risk groups were more afraid of traveling

Statistics also showed that people over the age of 65 gave up travel the most, ie those who are most at risk of a pandemic in the age group. More than half of those who traveled before the pandemic decided to stay at home.

On the contrary, the lower decline was in the category of population aged 25 to 44 years. In their case, travel fell “only” by 36 percent. “The significantly lower year-on-year decline, which was reflected in the general population, was in the category of the population aged 25 to 44, their travel decreased by 36 percent,” statistics show.