Americans remain vacation deprived according to the seventh annual Allianz Travel Insurance Vacation Confidence Index. It found that more than 170 million Americans have not taken a vacation in the last year. This is crazy to me and it says to me that Americans are still leaving a lot of paid vacation days on the table and essentially wasting money.
Furthermore, the survey revealed that just 15 percent of Americans have been on a vacation in the last three months (down one point since 2015), 16 percent haven’t been on vacation in one to two years (unchanged) and 37 percent haven’t been on vacation in more than two years (down four points).
“We’ve only seen the slightest increase in Americans taking a vacation this year,” said Daniel Durazo, director of communications at Allianz Global Assistance USA. “Our findings show that Americans continue to be plagued by an alarming Vacation Deficit.”
Vacation deficit to say the least. This is actually preposterous. I tend to look at things from a global perspective and if you said this to Europeans, they’d start throwing dishes at you for not taking your vacation! In my view, whether or not you actually take a vacation, take the time off to recharge the batteries, play with your kids or just sit on the couch! They’re paid vacation days, do something with them!
Hopefully next year this number will be significantly different because the fact that 170 million Americans have not taken a vacation in the last year is insane; but I wouldn’t bet on it!
The Vacation Confidence Index has been conducted each summer since 2010 by national polling firm Ipsos Public Affairs on behalf of Allianz Global Assistance USA.
Methodology: These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted on behalf of Allianz from June 2 to 5, 2016. For the survey, a nationally representative sample of 1,007 randomly-selected adults residing in the U.S. was interviewed by random-digit dialing telephone via the ORC Caravan omnibus. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate within ±3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire population of adults in the U.S. been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure the sample’s regional and age/gender composition reflects that of the actual U.S. population according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Disclaimer: I work as an ambassador for Allianz Global Assistance (AGA Service Company) and receive financial compensation.
170 Million Americans Have Not Taken a Vacation in the Last Year
August 18, 2016 by 2 Comments
I am one of these people but in my industry if I leave for vacation I lose out on leads and someone else can easily take my sales or job even if I’m gone for a week. Maybe I should move to Europe!
This is so true. I’ve also found just from conversation, that most Americans, regardless of what class they’re from view retirement as the time for traveling abroad and living their dreams. I find that to be a very interesting concept. I wonder if there’s any data around that topic.