Travel and leisure marketing: Are Americans suffering from vacation

Compared to adults in other countries, US citizens take a lot less vacation. Is there an opportunity for your travel or leisure brand?

It?s not news that since the start of the Great Recession, ?Americans are taking shorter trips closer to home.

But did you know Americans take a lot less vacation than workers in other countries?

And they need their travel and leisure brands to pack more relaxation or excitement into less time.

Every year for the past decade, Expedia has surveyed employed adults in countries all over the world as part of its International Vacation Deprivation Survey.

The results of the latest survey tell a lot about why so many Americans are stressed out and in need of more leisure time.

Employed adults in the U.S. get less than half of the vacation time as workers in other Western countries.

• Americans receive an average of 13 days of vacation a year.
• By comparison, Canadians average 19 days per year.
• Workers in Great Britain get 26 days a year.
• Germans take 28 days a year.
• But the biggest winners are French workers, who average 38 vacation days per year.

Not only do we get less vacation, we enjoy it less, too.

• 4?in 10 Americans take only one week of vacation, and then use the rest here and there.
• 3 in 10 employed adults usually do not take all of their vacation days each year.
• A quarter of all respondents reported checking work email or voicemail while vacationing.
• 4 in 10 report having trouble coping with stress at some point during their vacation.
• 2 in 10 adults reported canceling or postponing a vacation because of work.

The funny thing is Americans see the benefits of taking time off.

• In the study, 1 in 3 American adults reported feeling better about their job after a vacation.
• 1 in 2 say they come back from vacation feeling rejuvenated.
• 1 in 2 say they come back feeling reconnected with their families.

Men and women have different attitudes about work and vacation time.

• Men are more likely to regularly work more than 40 hours a week (44% of men vs. 29% of women).
• Men are also more likely to take a 2-week vacation then women (12% of men vs. 8% of women).
• Women are more likely to feel guilty about taking time off from work (40% of women vs. 29% of men).

The only countries that leave more unused vacation days are the Japanese and Italians.

• American workers average 3 unused vacation days a year.
• By comparison, the British, French and Germans don?t use 1-2?days.
• Italian workers leave an average of 6 vacation days (out of 27), while the Japanese leave 7 (out of 15).

Courtesy of Expedia Vacation Deprivation Survey

How can your travel or leisure brand can capitalize on this trend:

• Can your brand offer people a better escape in less time?
• Can your guests cram more activities into fewer days, or enjoy a more complete escape?
• Should you put ?together all-inclusive and short-term vacation packages?
• Maybe you market your property as a cell-free or email free zone.

What are you doing to attract the vacation-starved American traveler? ?Tell us about it.

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 1st, 2011 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Leisure Services, Research, Travel and Tourism, Trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Source: http://5to9branding.com/2011/07/01/travel-and-leisure-marketing-are-americans-suffering-from-vacation-deprivation/

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