Mecenat Insights – The students are adapting and looking forward to summer vacation

This year the student’s summer will not be like previous years, but the students adapt and make the best of the situation. That’s a short summary of the results of Mecenat Insight’s summer survey.

We regularly conduct student surveys to improve the student discounts. We also do surveys to understand what they want and how they discuss about different topics. One of them is when we ask what their summer will look like and when we read the results of this year’s edition, many of the answers look quite different – for obvious reasons.

Most of the students will travel
Compared to the survey for the summer of 2019, there are about as many, 70 percent, who expect to travel on their summer leave. But last year, 44 percent aimed to fly abroad. That figure has dropped dramatically and this year only five percent of students hope to check in and fly on a holiday outside Sweden.

Car instead of aircraft
Instead, it is the car that has replaced the aircraft and by margin become the most common means of transport. The travel destinations are naturally adapted accordingly. It is most common to have the aim set for various travel destinations within Sweden, but just over 20 percent will only make shorter trips close to the home.

Increase for cycling holidays
After the car comes train and bus as preferred means of transport and together with the boat they are at almost identical levels as last year which is a bit unexpected. The expectation was that more people would avoid public transport. The second biggest increase after the car is the bicycle, even if it is from low levels. This year, almost 9 percent plan to take the bicycle on their summer vacation.

Involuntary unemployment
The number of vacation weeks is at about the same levels as previous years. The figure that stands out is that the share of students who will be vacant all summer has almost doubled compared to last year to 21 percent. This can be partly explained by the fact that a considerable part of students has lost their summer jobs due to the pandemic.

Missing international trips and concerts
The top list of what the students want to do in the summer has not been changed by the pandemic. At the top of the list is to spend time with family and friends closely followed by sun and bath. Of the activities that students miss most where the pandemic limits or stops, the top three are to travel abroad, hang out at outdoor restaurants and go to concerts.