Expedia’s Vacation Deprivation study is an annual analysis of vacation habits across multiple countries and continents. Taken from the results of a survey by Harris Interactive, 7,083 respondents were surveyed in total across 20 countries with some surprising results.
“226 million vacation days will go unused this year resulting in some 50 million Americans becoming vacation deprived,” travel company Monograms reports on TravelBlackboard.
The 2011 study spans North America, Europe, Asia, South America and Australia. It reveals who gets – and takes – the most vacation time, as well as attitudes toward vacation. Common themes impacting how and where respondents vacation include money, romance and disapproving bosses.
When asked, “How many vacation days, if any, do you receive from your employer each year?”, Germany, France, Spain, Denmark and Brazil all tied for first place with 30 days. UK workers came in a bit less with 25, Canada 16 and the U.S. 14 but in last place was Japan with 11 days. Of those 11 they only used 6 on the average too.
According to the survey, most of the world likes to take a mix of short and long vacations, mostly in the Summer months and beach locations won out over others as the most preferred kind of holiday.
The sample included a nationwide cross-section of the employed adult populations fielded the online survey on behalf of Expedia.com from September 19 – October 9, 2011. Complete results of the survey can be found on the Expedia website.
Flickr photo by Moyan_Brenn