Travellers think the Dutch are least likely to comply with corona measures
July 27th 2021
Large majority of participants in the Great Corona Study want mandatory vaccination of health care staff
A large majority of Belgians who have already travelled find the corona guidelines at their destination easy to accept and follow. The Belgian traveller thinks that the rules are well respected in Austria and Spain, but not so much in the Netherlands. This and much more was evident from the Great Corona Study.
Tuesday saw the 41st round of the Great Corona Study – an initiative of UAntwerp, in cooperation with UHasselt, KU Leuven, ULB and supported by a financial boost from the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO). It’s the middle of the summer holidays, yet 14,100 Belgians found some time to fill in the questionnaire. The number of participants remains the same as the number of respondents at the end of June, during the previous questionnaire.
An initial analysis by the scientists yielded some interesting results:
Some countries, including France, require mandatory vaccination for health care workers. This week, the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine also recommended introducing this obligation. 85.1% of respondents in the Great Corona Study believe that vaccination should be mandatory for health care workers.
16.9% of health care workers are against this obligation. In general, younger people are more opposed to this obligation, but also people who are in a more difficult financial situation. Previous research has already shown that the latter category has a greater distrust of the government and obligations from the government.
The summer holidays are almost halfway over. Of participants who have already travelled, 88% found the measures at their holiday destination easy to accept and follow. 72% believe that the guidelines for travelling are clear.
Half of travellers believe that the corona measures were respected at their holiday destination to the same extent as at home. 20% said that compliance was better, 30% worse. The difference between the holiday destinations is striking: Austria and Spain score well, but in the Netherlands compliance is lower, according to almost 7 out of 10 Belgian travellers.
In the age group 18–35, almost 15% of respondents took a corona test in the past two weeks. More than half of people taking a test who had one done to be able to travel. The number of tests is a lot lower in the older age groups: about 6% for people between 36 and 65 years, about 2% for those over 65.
