New Poll Finds One Third of Asians would be Space Tourists

A new CNN/TIME poll conducted by TNS reveals that even though man still cannot cure the common cold, almost two thirds of people in Asia (59%) believe that expenditure on space exploration is justified.

Of the eleven markets polled, those who most strongly support the venture into space are Korea (83%), Hong Kong (73%), and Thailand (72%). Those where it is believed by the majority to be a waste of resources are Indonesia (56%) and the Philippines (51%).

The poll comes off the back of the CNN Future Summit, a recent discussion program from Singapore featuring guests that included astronaut and second man on the moon Dr Buzz Aldrin and recent space tourist Anousheh Ansari who debated the issues of space travel with first hand experience.

A further indicator of regional support and enthusiasm for space comes as an even higher number of respondents (68%) believe that Asian countries should take a more active role in space exploration. Validating China and Japan’s efforts to gain a foothold in the space race, support for Asia’s active participation runs highest in Thailand (92%), Korea (91%) and Hong Kong (80%).

On average two thirds of respondents would be interested in taking a trip into space. If money were no object, 49% of Indians said they would be very interested in becoming a space tourist, alongside 46% of Thais, 44% of Singaporeans and 43% of Hong Kong citizens. Those most uninterested in a trip to space were people from the Philippines (51%) and Japan (52%).

This CNN/TIME poll was conducted from November 16th to November 21st, 2006 by leading market research group TNS. Fieldwork was conducted online in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand, and face to face in India, Indonesia and Philippines. The survey uses a weighted total of 5,000 respondents giving each country equal weighting. Total results are presented at 95% confidence levels with a margin of error of +/- 1.4%.

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