Analytics, Financial Services, Latvia, Society, Tourism

The poll showed that nearly a half or 46%% of Latvian households will this year be going on a foreign holiday trip to nearby or more distant destinations for holidays. But not all of them will rely on regular income or savings to pay for the trip as 26% of those, who will travel abroad, have overdue liabilities. This suggests that, at least for some, it is a matter of attitude and their overdue liabilities do not occur simply because of the shortage of money, the institute said.

The poll showed that every tenth of the travelers going abroad despite overdue liabilities have more than one debt or have taken a new loan to finance the trip.

At the same time, 52% rely on their regular money income and the vacation pay to finance a foreign trip and 51% use savings accumulated previously. Every tenth respondent had someone else to pay the travel costs either fully or partially, and 5% borrowed part or the whole amount of money needed for the trip.

Urban population are more likely to go on foreign trips. Residents of smaller Latvian towns tend to prefer trips to neighboring Estonia and Lithuania while Rigans mostly choose to travel to the European countries outside the Baltic region.

The poll was carried out in June 2017 in cooperation with Snapshots online pollster. The poll was taken by 700 respondents across Latvia aged 18-74 years.