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According to an online survey of Americans by insurance provider Allianz Global Assistance, 14.8% said the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro should be canceled because of the Zika virus, and 34.1% said the Olympics should be delayed.
Allianz reported that 51.1% said the games should proceed as scheduled.
When asked if they were interested in traveling to Brazil for the Olympics if they had the opportunity, 29.5% said they would, but 70.5% said they would not be interested.
Further, the survey asked if fear of contracting Zika was impacting respondents’ opinion about traveling to South America for the Olympics, and 41.6% said, “I definitely wouldn’t go.” Meanwhile, 22.8% said, “I would be less interested in going,” and 17.8% said “I would go, but be worried about Zika.” Another 17.8% said, “I would go, Zika is of no concern to me.”
Outside of Zika, respondents were asked if recent acts of terrorism were affecting their interest of traveling to the games. Most (69%) said no, their interest was unchanged, while 27.8% said yes, it made them less interested. The remainder, 3.2%, said yes, they were more interested in traveling to Rio.
Survey takers said the other factors hindering their interest in going to Rio were travel costs (30.9%), safety concerns (25.2%), health concerns (11.4%), lack of interest in sports (10.2%), large crowds (8.3%), difficulty in getting tickets to the games (7.6%) and lack of desire to travel (6.3%).
Nearly half (47.6%) expressed interest in going to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo over the Rio games this summer, and 16.1% said they would prefer Rio. The remainder said they were not interested in either location.
Allianz also asked if having travel insurance would affect interest in going to Rio. Most (51.3%) said no, it does not address their concerns. Some (34.4%) said that would not affect their interest and they do not want to travel to Rio. The remainder, 14.3%, said they would be more interested in going to Rio if they had insurance.
In addition to administering the survey, Allianz analyzed travel bookings and found that those heading to Rio for the Olympics are staying a shorter amount of time, 13.1 days, than those who attended the 2012 Olympics in London (they stayed an average of 25.9 days).
The insurance provider administered the survey through Google Consumer Surveys at the end of May and received 2,110 responses.
Source: travelweekly.com
