Travel Dating: Where do people want to go during a pandemic?

In July 2021, some might say the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, we got curious. Are people still wanting to date internationally, and where are they comfortable travelling to?

We put out a survey across our four largest dating sites and received 4451 responses, with 76% of responders being male and 23% female. The survey included people from 106 countries around the world, between the ages of 18 and 60+.

Here’s what we found:
  • COVID-19 hasn’t deterred people in the search for love
  • Many daters are still willing to travel to their partner’s country despite COVID.
  • Asia was destination #1 on the list for the majority of participants

Let’s dive into the stats. We’ve broken this down into search and travel phases.

Search: The pandemic has had a considerable impact on life in the last two years. And, while online dating has been a safe haven for many singles in isolation, quarantine or simply feeling disconnected, it still begs the question, has the attitude towards international dating changed?

When factoring in COVID, 38% of participants were likely to search for love in a different country. Interestingly, between males and females, both held the same view with only a 1% difference.

Over 20% were indifferent to the matter.

These stats don’t surprise us. In fact, new members joining our sites in October 2022 are up 16.7% compared to Feb 2020, the beginning of COVID-19.

Travel:
64% of responses indicated they’d be willing to meet someone from another country very soon. This is back in July 2021 so let’s hope dreams have come true by now!

The overwhelming majority of responses – 68% – indicated that they’d prefer to meet in their own country or their partners, rather than meeting on holiday somewhere else.

Of the 30% that indicated they’d meet in their partners country –
  • 45% of preferred countries were in Asia,
  • 10% in Latin America and,
  • 18% had no preference. They’d meet their partner wherever they are.
Let’s be honest, Mai Thai’s on the beach overlooking an iridescent sunset doesn’t sound too bad right now…

Two other popular “where to meet” suggestions were a coffee shop – a sensible choice. And, Chuck E. Cheese of all places. Regardless, the sentiment is clear, COVID-19 hasn’t stopped online dating and international dating, specifically. The search for love continues no matter who you are or where you live.