America — Land of the free, home of the brave, and filled with people who won’t take a vacation this summer.
Each year, Americans fail to use 429 million vacation days, and with those days $160 billion in economic opportunity is lost, according to the U.S. Travel Association. A recent two-part survey from Skift reveals that the majority of Americans will take little to no vacation this summer. The two separate single-question surveys were administered to the U.S. internet population through Google Consumer Surveys, garnering about 2,000 responses each.
When asked, “Are you planning on taking a vacation this summer?” about 62% of respondents said they won’t be taking a vacation this summer at all. Of those, more than half said they couldn’t afford it. Only about 16% said they are taking a long summer vacation, while about 23% said they are taking short breaks on weekends throughout the summer.
Here’s the breakdown:
Are you planning on taking a vacation this summer?
When asked “How many days of vacation are you planning to take this summer?” about 45.4% of respondents said none, while another 15% said less than a week. Only about 15% of Americans are planning on taking a long summer vacation.
Here’s the breakdown on that question:
How many days of vacation are you planning to take this summer?
Additional observations based on demographic data from the two surveys include:
- Men in America are taking less vacation than women overall, but when asked for the reason, more women than men said they couldn’t afford to take a vacation this summer.
- American men take longer summer vacations more often than American women.
- More millennials are planning on taking (short or long) summer vacations over any other age group, while middle-aged Americans (35-60 year olds) are among the least likely to take vacations this summer.
- Residents of the Northeast are least likely to take a summer vacation, while Westerners are most likely to take one.
- Americans with annual incomes above $100K are most likely to take summer vacations this year, while those who make $50K and below are least likely to take one.
- Parents try to take more summer vacations than people without children.
