MUMBAI (TIP): Indians are largely “vacation deprived”, they readily cancel holiday plans when faced with last-minute work assignments and fear that important decisions will occur in office in their absence. These were some of the findings that came out of an annual analysis of vacation habits among people across the globe. Japan tops the list with the maximum (62%) unused vacation days followed by Korea (30%), while India and Australia tied for the fourth position, with Indians leaving 25% of vacation days unused. The survey was carried out online among 8,600 employed people across 22 countries.

“In India, while the bosses have softened their stance on leaves as compared to last year, the median numbers of leaves given has dropped significantly from 25 in 2011 to 20 this year,” said Manmeet Ahluwalia, marketing head (India), Expedia.co.in, a travel portal that conducted the survey. “Indians still rank second globally in the number of people logging in during vacation with 47% checking regularly and 39% checking on work sometimes. These trends indicate the increasing levels of stress and further highlight the importance of a good break,” he said. While most Europeans have 25-30 days of vacation each year. Asia had the least vacation days.

Majority of Delhiites dump vacation, encash it
While Delhiites were keen to not take holidays and exchange the days for money, those from Mumbai could not go on vacations as they were poor at planning ahead. A study, called vacation deprivation survey, done by an online company found that Indians were largely vacation deprived and the reasons varied from city to city. “Last year, the top reasons for not taking a vacation, given by employees in Delhi was that their bosses did not approve of it. This year, a majority of respondents (36%) said they wanted to encash their vacation days,” the survey said. As for respondents from south, in addition to saving vacation days (37%) and lack of planning (33%).

When it came to cancelling a vacation for a last-minute job Delhiites at 68% lead the pack, followed by those form Mumbai (59%) and southern Indian cities (56%). Holiday preference for Indians varied from beaches (32%) to romantic destinations (33%). “People from Delhi prefer romantic holidays (39%), while those from Mumbai like beach holidays (38%),” said the survey.