When it comes to holidays Kiwis are a bunch of hoarders. According to Expedia’s vacation deprivation report, New Zealanders on average left four days of annual leave unused in 2013.
The most common reason for not using the full allotment of annual leave was due to stockpiling for a future trip. However, the survey also found that some didn’t use their full allocation of leave due to holidays being either too expensive or too hard to organise.
Expedia travel expert Kelly Cull told
The New Zealand Herald geographically it made sense for Kiwis to stockpile their annual leave.
"If they're going to Europe or the United States they can spend longer when visiting those destinations," she told the newspaper.
"No one retires wishing they'd spent more time at their desk," John Morrey, vice president and general manager of Expedia.com stated. "There are countless reasons that vacation days go unused – failure to plan; worry; forgetfulness; you name it. But rested employees are more productive employees, so taking regular vacations may well help the company more than failing to do so."
Other findings from the study which questioned 8,535 employed adults from 24 countries include:
- Australians are similar to Kiwis with employed adults on average leaving five annual leave days unclaimed last year
- The French lead the world in vacationing taking all 30 annual leave days available.
- Europeans are afforded more vacation time than other regions but feel the most vacation deprived. Ninety per cent of employed French adults agreed they were vacation deprived, as did 83% in Italy, 78% in Spain and 74% in Germany. In New Zealand 52% feel holiday deprived.
- Norwegians, by a wide margin, felt the least holiday deprived with only 17% admitting to feeling this way, followed by Mexico (38%) and Denmark (39%).
- The global average for annual leave is 20 days
- Globally 65% of people feel their bosses are supportive of their holiday time. The most supportive bosses are in Norway (88%), Sweden (80%), New Zealand (76%) and the United States (76%). Less than half in South Korea (44%), Italy (44%), Thailand (47%) and Germany (49%) say their bosses are supportive.
