51% of Southeast Asians who are intending to join year-end celebrations in-person with friends and family will only do so if all attendees are fully vaccinated; people are hopeful for 2022, but remain cautious.

Milieu Insight released the results of their “Festival Sentiments & 2022 Outlook” study with 6000 respondents across Southeast Asia to find out about vaccination status considerations for year-end celebrations, their outlook for 2022 and the concerns they have.

A sixth of the respondents is from the Philippines, the release says, while the rest are from Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. 

According to the study, 65% of people across Southeast Asia intend to join in-person year-end celebrations with their loved ones, among which 51% will only join if all attendees are fully vaccinated, while 49% will do so regardless of the attendees’ vaccination status.

However, opinions are mixed across the 6 countries. While only 43% of Singapore residents indicated that they will only join their loved ones for year-end celebrations if everyone is vaccinated, other countries are more cautious, registering a higher percentage of respondents who shared the same opinion, highest being Malaysia at 64%. 

1 in 4 residents from the Southeast Asian countries prefer if everyone is vaccinated but will join regardless, while 9%  indicated they didn’t care about the vaccination status at all. 

Some results of the study include: 

• Hope emerged as the top emotion that people feel towards 2022. The Philippines in particular (41%). While people are hopeful that the Covid-19 situation will improve, they are also reserved about it – uncertainty is also one of the top 3 voted emotions in most SEA countries, particularly in Singapore (29%), Thailand (23%) and Malaysia (11%).

• The state of the local economies ranked among the top 5 concerns Southeast Asians have for 2022, which also includes impact on household income, uncertainty over how long Covid-19 will last and the health of loved ones. Among them, Thais are most concerned about the local economy (57%) and household income (62%).

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