The coronavirus pandemic has transformed every aspect of people’s lives, with remote working, online schooling, empty airports and closed restaurants now being the norm.
Some people are eager to get back to the ‘old normal’ either when cases fall or when the anti-Covid-19 vaccine is rolled out next year.
But the pandemic and the massive changes it has brought to people’s lives, has also made them think about what is actually better now.
Many Romanians don’t actually want to return to ‘normal’ a survey carried out by Reveal Marketing Research said Tuesday.
One activity that many are missing, however, is travel. Thirty-eight percent said they’d like to start traveling again as they did before the pandemic, while just one in four said they’d like to resume normal life with their family and friends, a response which seems to indicate that many are worried about catching the virus and giving it to friends and family.
Some 19% said they were missing their old leisure activities, while only one in ten said they were itching to get back to the office or the place where they physically worked before.
The number of Romanians longing to start travel again was higher among those with higher incomes. Some 46% of young professionals said they miss traveling, while one-third of those without a partner said they miss that aspect of their old life.
Twenty-three percent of single adults miss going out and pursuing leisure activities, about the same percentage as Millennials.
While Romanians are missing travel, family and friends and leisure activities to some extent, the same can’t be said for returning to the workplace, for those able to work remotely, although 13% of young people said they wanted to go back to the office.
Another aspect of the ‘old normal’ that isn’t popular any more is shopping. Only 4% of Romanians said they miss going to the shops.
Researchers said one explanation was that shops are still open, with compulsory face masks and physical distancing being the only changes for consumers.
During the pandemic online shopping has increased, with 34% saying they shop online at least once a week.
Reveal Marketing Research said it interviewed 1,017 respondents by Computer Assisted Web Interview from 7-13 October in rural and urban areas. The survey has a 3% margin of error.
