Travel demographics, patterns, and plans among adult Nordic travelers

Fredrikke Dam Larsen; Lars Skov Dalgaard; Steen Villumsen; Ville Holmberg; Hilmir Asgeirsson; Carsten Schade Larsen

doi:10.1016/j.ijregi.2023.03.002

Travel demographics, patterns, and plans among adult Nordic travelers

IJID Reg. 2023 Mar 12:7:136-142. doi: 10.1016/j.ijregi.2023.03.002. eCollection 2023 Jun.

Authors

Fredrikke Dam Larsen¹, Lars Skov Dalgaard², Steen Villumsen³, Ville Holmberg⁴, Hilmir Asgeirsson⁵, Carsten Schade Larsen¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Infectious Diseases, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark.
² Department of Medicine, The Gødstrup Hospital, Gødstrup, Denmark.
³ Department of Medicine, Vestre Viken HF Drammen Sykehus, Drammen, Norway.
⁴ Department of Infectious Diseases, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.
⁵ Department of Infectious Diseases, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.

Abstract

Background: Despite the high frequency of international travel from Nordic countries annually, data describing demographics, patterns, and plans of travel among Nordic inhabitants are scarce.

Methods: In 2018, an online questionnaire covering travel patterns, plans, and knowledge about travel-related diseases was sent to Nordic inhabitants 18-74 years of age. At-risk travelers were defined as those who had traveled outside Europe and North America during the previous 2 years.

Results: Of the 5407 respondents included, 4371 (80.8%) had traveled abroad within the past 2 years. Among the respondents, 37.0% (n = 1999) were at-risk travelers. The most frequent travel destinations were Europe (n = 3907, 89.4%) and Asia (n = 1019, 23.3%). Russia/Eurasia was a more common destination for Finnish travelers than the other travelers (10.6% vs 2.3-4.1%). Most at-risk travelers had traveled for leisure/tourism (n = 1329, 66.5%). Visiting friends and relatives was more frequent among Norwegian and Swedish travelers (n = 105, 22.0% and n = 98, 19.4%, respectively) than Finnish travelers (n = 74, 12.7%). The elderly traveled often and made up 21.4% of at-risk travelers.

Conclusions: Travel demographics, destinations, and future travel plans were similar across the Nordic countries. More than one third had traveled outside Europe/North America. One third were either elderly or visiting friends or relatives.

Keywords: Elderly; Nordic countries; Patterns; Plans; Travel; Traveler; VFR travel.