Expedia Vacation Deprivation Report 2018: Indians feel most vacation deprived in the world
Expedia, one of the world’s largest full service online travel agency, has announced the results of the 2018 Vacation Deprivation study, an annual survey of vacation habits across 19 countries. The report highlighted that vacation deprivation is on the rise, and 75 per cent of Indian feel vacation deprived which is the highest in the world followed by South Korea (72 per cent) and Hong Kong (69 per cent). Indian workers also do not take all vacation days and rank five to leave their vacations unused after Japan, Italy, Australia, New Zealand.
Manmeet Ahluwalia, marketing head, Brand Expedia in India said, “We have seen an increase in support from Indian employers to take vacations. However, employees still do not avail their full vacation days because of reasons like missing out on important work decisions (#1, 25 per cent), fear of being seen less committed (#1, 19 per cent) or finding it difficult to coordinate time with their travel companion (#1, 33 per cent). Our study also reflect that 18 per cent Indians feel that those who are successful at their job don’t take vacation days.”
He added, “We dug deeper to understand reasons which are keeping Indians away from taking vacations and realised that, Indians are the least to get a free pass while vacationing. They are expected to be available to their colleagues (#1, 34 per cent) and supervisors (#1, 32 per cent), making 34 per cent Indians check their mails at least once per day. For 64 per cent of Indians the impending workload after they come back from vacation is an important factor in deciding the length of their holiday. Not surprised to know that 17 per cent of Indians have not taken any leave from past one year. These figures throws light on various factors resulting in making India the most vacation deprived nation in the world”.
On the positive side, vacations does not only hit the ‘reset’ button on their stress and anxiety but also make them feel more focused, relaxed, productive and motivated at work post their vacation. Needless to say, 55 per cent Indians feel that vacation deprivation effect their productivity and hence need to be taken seriously. Though the feeling of vacation deprivation among Indians have gone up, their guilt associated with taking a vacation has gone down by 9 per cent from previous year to 63 per cent in 2018. “One of the leading reasons people don’t use their vacation time is because they’re saving them for a big trip which means they’re going longer between vacations. Bigger trips are great, but even a quick break can drastically improve quality of life. Aim to schedule a staycation or add an extra day onto a holiday weekend in between longer trips to get the best of both worlds,” said Ahluwalia.
Reason for Indians being deprived is because 63 per cent Indians can do without a vacation for over three months and even though on an average Indians avail 15 days of vacation out of the 20 days they receives, 53 per cent take fewer days than they get. Even after 78 per cent bosses being supportive of vacations, Indians continue to get diverted by work while vacationing as 32 per cent supervisors, 34 per cent co-workers, 33 per cent junior staff keep bothering Indians while they are vacationing.