New survey: Thailand #hottest# travel destination for young Swedes

New survey: Thailand "hottest" travel destination for young Swedes Young people dream of traveling far, but stay within Europe. This is the conclusion of a survey commissioned by SAS in cooperation with Gallup to chart young people's travel habits and motives. The older they become, the higher priority they assign to travel in relation to other expenses. Most people believe that they will spend more money on travel during the next few years. The five "hottest" travel destinations among young Swedes are 1) Thailand, 2) Greece, 3) Spain, 4) Australia, 5) Italy. "Thailand and Australia are among the top five 'most desirable' travel destinations among young people. However, in practice, young people travel mainly in Europe. It is Greece, Spain and Denmark to which people mainly intend to travel during the summer. Young people also believe that the common currency, the euro, will encourage more people to travel abroad," says Odd Guteland of Swedish Gallup. Young Swedes travel extensively and spend large amounts of money on foreign travel. Nearly half of them have made at least two trips abroad during the past year. They spend an average of SEK 10,600 per year on travel. As many as one in four believe that their travel expenditure will increase in the next few years. Today's young people are extrovert and travel to meet new friends and to feel good. Six out of ten young people say that they are more extrovert when they are abroad than when they are at home and a majority would prefer to socialize with the local population than with their fellow countrymen when abroad. Slightly less than half of them have many friends abroad that they have met whe "It is important that we acquire more knowledge about the future generation and what encourages young people to travel. This survey has helped us to chart the reasons and driving forces behind young people's travel," says Jens Wittrup Willumsen, Marketing Director, SAS. The survey was conducted among young people aged 15-26 years who have traveled abroad at least once during the past year. A corresponding survey was conducted in Denmark and Norway. A total of 3,000 young people were interviewed, 1,000 in each country. The complete report is available at: www.gallup.se For further information, please contact Camilla Wallander, Marketing Director, SAS Sweden, tel. +46 (0)70-997 40 40 Odd Guteland, Svenska Gallup, tel. +46 (0)8-407 46 50, 0730-44 70 12 SAS CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2003/08/01/20030801BIT01080/wkr0001.doc http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2003/08/01/20030801BIT01080/wkr0002.pdf