Who’s afraid of Y2K?

Not the travelling public, if a recent travel magazine survey is correct. Travel Weekly asked people about their worries and fears regarding travel over the crucial Y2K period at the end of the year, and the response was surprisingly sanguine. Despite our tales of cancelled flights in Poland and Chinese airline executives forced to be in the air at midnight January 1, most travellers aren’t too concerned about the effects of Y2K on travel.

Even though the vast majority of the public believes that some glitches will occur as the world moves from ’99 to ’00, their level of worry is very low — on average, 3 on a 10-point scale. And despite the fuss about the “millennium bug” only seven percent of the public indicated that Y2K concerns are affecting their New Year’s 2000 plans.

Only three percent say Y2K concerns will keep them from travelling. Air travel, which recent headlines have fingered as most vulnerable to Y2K problems in the travel sector, will be specifically shunned by another 6 percent.