Indians suffering from vacation deprivation, survey claims

TNN

New Delhi, Nov 07, 2014: Indians are the fourth most vacation deprived nation globally with 67% polled saying that they took only 15 days of leave in a year. Mumbai took the least vacations while Delhiites took the maximum holidays in a 5 city survey by Expedia. 

 

About 40% of Indians cannot plan vacations in advance due to work. Indians rank fourth globally after Thailand (43%), Singapore & South Korea (42%) in vacation-deprivation. Indians also ranked second globally in cancelling holiday plans due to work (74%) after Thailand (77%). Globally, 15% feel guilty about taking their vacation days. Indians rank 4 at 20% while Japanese top the list at 26% 

 

Within India, Mumbai residents took the least number of vacations with 97% saying they felt deprived of time off from work followed by Pune (88%), Bangalore (86%), Hyderabad (85%) and Delhi (83%). The survey interviewed 7855 people over 18 years of age. 

 

Indians receive an average of 19.6 vacation days from their employer each year. They take an average of 15.5 vacation days, with over half (52%) reporting taking fewer days then they receive.

 

 

The two most common reasons for not taking all their vacation days are a work schedule that does not allow for vacation time (26%) and a personal schedule that does not allow for vacation time (25%). Other possible reasons for not using all of their vacation time include wanting to bank their days for one longer vacation next year (23%), the ability to get money in exchange for unused vacation days (22%) and difficulty coordinating a time that works for spouse, partner, family members (21%). 

 

Elaborating on the survey Expedia MD Asia Vikram Malhi said, "Vacations play an important role in maintaining work life balance, and general well-being of the employees while re-energizing them to be more focused at work. The survey highlights that Delhiites are least vacation deprived compared to the other metro cities in India. 60% of people in Delhi would prefer more vacation days instead of money. They are usually very excited to plan their vacations, and 7% actually book it before landing back from their current vacation.’’ 

 

Overall, individuals from India (96%), Italy (92%) and UAE (92%) are the most willing to make sacrifices for more vacation days.