Infographic: how the haze problem is understood in Singapore and neighboring peers

Guess where awareness is lowest in the region.

The citizens of many Southeast Asian countries have been coping with the effects of significant haze – caused primarily by forest fires burning in the region - in recent months. While the haze seems to be finally under control, that was not the first time SEA has been affected in this way and there have been mixed voices as to who is to blame. YouGov ran a survey to investigate how the haze has impacted people’s habits and travel behaviour in the region. It polled 7,536 respondents online across Asia Pacific from 17-23 Nov 2015. All data was collected from YouGov panellists and weighted to be representative of the online population.

The survey also found that the haze has particularly changed the travel behaviour of people in Asia Pacific. 68% say they would only visit cities/countries that remain unaffected by the haze. Only 7% of respondents would still visit the affected cities/countries and think the haze is not a problem. Another 18% would still visit the affected cities/countries due to business travel, family visits, or because they already paid for the trip.

In fact, regardless of the haze, Singapore is among the top 5 countries in APAC where respondents would want to visit most. And here are the top 5 :-
1. Japan (50%),

2. Australia (43%),

3. New Zealand (38%),

4. Singapore (33%), and

5. Thailand (25%).

However, the above ranking doesn’t stay the same in some countries. In Mainland China, half of the respondents (50%) want to visit Singapore most, while over 50% of Malaysian wants to travel to Australia most.