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Only one in five Germans plans 'to travel in autumn or winter'

DPA/The Local
DPA/The Local - [email protected]
Only one in five Germans plans 'to travel in autumn or winter'
A sign in Stuttgart points out the distance to various cities around the world. Photo: DPA

In light of a growing number of coronavirus cases and numerous travel warnings, only one in five Germans plans to travel in the autumn or winter, according to a survey conducted by YouGov on behalf of DPA.

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Eight percent of respondents said they intended to travel abroad, whereas 12 percent said they planned to take a trip domestically.

Of those surveyed, 66 percent said that they intended to sit out the whole autumn and winter travel season. A further eight percent were undecided, and five percent did not provide an answer.

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In contrast to the previous year, a full 41 percent of those surveyed had travelled in the fall of 2019 and winter of 2019-2020. Of those, 23 percent had travelled abroad, and 18 percent within Germany.

READ ALSO: 'Who's controlling it?': Why you could face domestic travel restrictions within Germany

The representative survey of 2,034 people above the age of 18 took place between September 28th and 30th. 

Currently the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has issued full or partial travel warnings for eight out of the nine countries surrounding Germany due to increasing coronavirus cases.

Poland, which borders the German states of Brandenburg, Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, is the only bordering country not on the RKI's list.

Within Germany itself, the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein issued a quarantine order for travellers from parts of central Berlin, which has seen cases spike in recent days.

'Take a holiday at home'

In some German states, the week-long autumn holiday already kicked off. 

Both for this and for the winter holidays, German Health Minister Jens Spahn has advised against travelling abroad due to the increasing number of corona infections. 

"You can also take a holiday at home", the politician from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) recently told public broadcaster ZDF. 

READ ALSO: How to travel the world without leaving Germany

During the coronavirus pandemic, it had been shown time and again that people returning to their home countries were increasingly carrying the virus. 

"I think we should learn from this together for autumn, winter and Christmas holidays", said Spahn. This will be challenging for tour operators, he added, but cannot be changed in the current situation.

In recent weeks, coronavirus infection rates in Europe have skyrocketed and many travel warnings have been reactivated. 

The German government is currently warning against travel in 138 of a total of almost 200 countries around the world. In 15 of these countries, however, the warning only applies to individual regions. 

The Federal Foreign Office advises against travelling to about 50 other countries because of entry or exit restrictions. 

The bottom line is that only a dozen countries remain that are free of travel warnings and for which travel is not advised.

Vocabulary

A trip abroad - eine Reise ins Ausland

Undecided - unentschlossen

Autumn holidays - (die) Herbstferien

The bottom line - unter dem Strich

We're aiming to help our readers improve their German by translating vocabulary from some of our news stories. Did you find this article useful? Let us know.

 

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Anonymous 2020/10/09 11:25
It confused me as well - <br />After reading, it is obvious that it should be one in five planning to travel.
Anonymous 2020/10/08 12:55
I'd assume the second one from the article, but it's a very confusing (i.e. wrong!) headline.

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