Severe allergic reactions, particularly to food, and biking incidents on gravelly descents were the two specific types of incident to stand out in the charity’s recently published data for 2022.
The data was gathered from travel operator partners licensed for a combined 7.5 million trips, as well as media reports, Foreign Office intelligence and inquest findings.
Severe allergic reactions to food, insect bites and other allergens, in particular, have increased post-pandemic, while the number of near misses where a severe reaction was avoided has also gone up, the research shows.
Meanwhile, group bicycle rides have led to an increase in the number of biking accidents, while slips, trips and falls make up a fifth of all non-Covid incidents.
“We’re also seeing an increased proportion of bike accidents, particularly on group rides where there is a gravelly descent, where people are distracted by other riders, or when they are attempting to reach their water bottle or adjust a piece of kit such as a GoPro,” read a blog post by Safer Travel Foundation chief executive Katherine Atkinson accompanying the charity’s report.