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.