Australian views on vaccinations and travel

Australian’s vaccination marathon is entering its late stages. As of today 83% of eligible Australians are double dosed (source: https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2021/11/covid-19-vaccine-rollout-update-14-november-2021.pdf). The government’s own covid-19 Sentiment tracker has shown that as more become vaccinated and some states tie the path out of lockdown to vaccination, vaccine hesitancy has been declining for the last 4 months (source: Department of Health – Sentiment Towards COVID-19 Vaccine Research, October 2021).

But as restrictions in NSW and Victoria have been lifted and interstate borders begin to reopen, tourism and hospitality looks to the next stage. We are now are expected to check vaccination status of both employees and customers. Recent press was full of concerned businesses worrying about asking staff to do this

Businesses that have announced/supported strong vaccine mandates have often attracted controversy. For example when Bird In Hand winery announced this, its social media account lit up. There are also many tales of staff being abused for trying to police this rule and businesses have expressed concerns about this.

How do Australians feel about tourism and hospitality businesses vaccination policy?

But what do Australians really feel about the issue of allowing in the unvaccinated? MyTravelResearch.com has been exploring this sensitive topic as part of the Catalyst Sparkline poll with research platform Glow.

As the Chart below shows almost three out of five Australians say they would avoid a business which allows unvaccinated patrons to enter.

Moreover, that percentage has held steady as the reopening process has proceeded with affluent Australians and men most likely to say this. There’s an interesting alliance between the young and senior Australians – both groups are more reluctant than Generation X to patronise businesses that allow the unvaccinated to enter.

Where there has been a shift is among those who are less resistant to the idea. Women have been among the more vaccine hesitant. They, people who live in the regions and Gen X’ers have grown more confident in their views – fewer are saying they don’t mind and more are saying that they won’t avoid businesses that don’t police the policy. However, this needs to be seen in context: they are still greatly outnumbered by those who do care.

What drives attitudes to vaccination policies?

When asked why they hold the views that they do, the responses are clear.

Among those who expect businesses to police vaccination status there are three key drivers:

They are worried for the health of themselves or their families. This is by far the most common reason with a typical comment being: I would feel unsafe near unvaccinated people as they might have covid but don’t know they do and could potentially spread it to other people;
They feel that this is a community responsibility and resent those who don’t share it: because they are idiots and want nothing to do with people who are not vaccinated to try and help stop covid 19 and people dying (typical comment). Whilst this group of customers is often less vocal publically, businesses should not underestimate this attitude. Included in this was a genuine concern for staff who are exposed to covid.
This resentment at an unequal burden extends to businesses. These customers feel that those businesses don’t share their values in other words this is a brand reputation issue for regional tourism and hospitality businesses.

Typical comments from this last group were the most vivid and detailed as these comments show:

“I have no desire to contribute to the spread of Covid 19. I’ve done the right thing and got my vaccinations, and I expect businesses to contribute to the social pressure to get others to do the same. If their policy is to encourage the unvaccinated, my policy is to not give them my money.“

I am vaccinated but still at some risk of contracting and passing on the virus. I work in aged care and can’t risk spreading the virus to the elderly. People who have chosen not to be vaccinated (ie not with valid medical exemptions) shouldn’t be given the same freedoms as those who have done the right thing for the community. I will not support businesses who do not support the community.

Among those who are not deterred by strict vaccination policies again the reasons were clear:

They had not yet felt the effects of this on their lives. These are typically residents of states like WA and Queensland. For example, We are in WA – there is no lockdown here. We go where we want to go. It will be interesting to see how this holds up as borders reopen.
They felt that this was discriminatory and unfair: I believe vaccinated or not people have a choice and no one should be punished or deprived of freedom
These respondents were often unvaccinated themselves.

So where does this leave regional tourism businesses?

At this point, businesses should take courage and be confident that for most customers, whilst they might not say so, really appreciate checking and managing this process. After all, five out of six customers will be vaccinated.

Business Australia’s advice is as follows (note this comes with a disclaimer which can be seen on the link)

Staff should be directed to stay calm as far as possible and maintain a civil tone.

Advice on dealing with aggressive customers generally recommends that you don’t challenge or threaten the client or say things that will escalate the aggression. Arguing, yelling, and adopting threatening body language is definitely not a good idea.

Staff may be empathetic but remind the customer that the business could face a $5,000 fine for admitting an unvaccinated customer.

If you think there’s a strong likelihood that your staff may face a hostile reaction from customers, consider including a brief, informal role-play at a staff meeting to help prepare them to deal with contingencies.

If you don’t believe a person is fully vaccinated, you can ask them to leave. If the person refuses to leave, you can notify police.

We’ve highlighted what we think is a particularly useful tactic. The better prepared staff are the easier it will be.

What about how to respond to the keyboard warriors who sledge via social media? Here’s how Tourism Australia says they respond to such reactions:

Our general approach is to just ignore and let other LinkedIn users respond to comments rather than give them air time. As you say, it’s a small noisy group rather than the majority.

However, if they [tourism businesses] are really worried, they can respond to comments and say that they are happy to discuss further with customers and provide a generic email for them if they’d like to discuss. Most of the time, no one will email, but it makes people feel like they’ve been heard and takes the wind out of the comment. Then if people do email with queries, they can respond with relevant facts/links to government sites with further information about vaccinations.

Again, it is often about allowing customers to feel heard. So in any situation can you find a way to make that happening without compromising. However, with the majority supporting vaccination, be careful to avoid any sense of reluctance in doing the right thing.

With regulations changing does this even matter?

With such high vaccination rates and with the regulations about to change in many cases (for example from December 15th in NSW there will be fewer barriers to unvaccinated visitors) is this a concern any more?

We think there is good reason to think there is. The second wave of the Catalyst survey took place AFTER restrictions began to lift – yet the majority reaction was unchanged. As such, a strong process for managing access by unvaccinated customers will retain more customers than it loses. In particular, high yielding customers are reluctant to share space with the unvaccinated.

And tourism’s social licence from the community in states who are only now opening their borders will also depend on feeling that the community is safe. In studies we have viewed from all around the world, there is a persistent gap between the desire to travel and the willingness to welcome travellers to our home communities. Those customers will be there long after any tourist has departed. Destinations and tourism businesses will depend on their goodwill.

There has never been a better time to start planning how to manage this for regions and regional tourism businesses.

The views here are based upon the Catalyst sparkline poll conducted by Glow in September and October 2021. In each month a nationally representative sample of more than 1,200 Australians was surveyed. The margin of error is +/- 3%. The views quoted are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of ART.