Nation needs a break: Indians feel most vacation-deprived in the world

Indians are the most vacation-deprived in the world and 41 per cent of them have not taken a vacation in the past six months as they could not get time off work, according to a report.

Vacation deprivation is on the rise, and 75 per cent of Indian feel vacation deprived which is the highest in the world followed by South Korea (72 per cent) and Hong Kong (69 per cent), according to the annual Expedia 2018 Vacation Deprivation Report.

Indian workers also do not take all vacation days and rank five to leave their vacations unused after Japan, Italy, Australia, New Zealand.

This research for the report was conducted on behalf of Expedia by Northstar Research Partners, in 19 countries among 11,144 employed adults aged 18 and over.

The survey was conducted online from September 19-28, 2018 across North America, Europe, South America and Asia-Pacific.

"We have seen an increase in support from Indian employers to take vacations. However, employees still do not avail their full vacation days as they feel they are missing out on important work decisions, fear of being seen as less committed or finding it difficult to co-ordinate time with their travel companion. Our study also reflects that 18 per cent Indians feel that those who are successful at their job don't take vacation days," Expedia India marketing head Manmeet Ahluwalia said.

"We dug deeper to understand reasons which are keeping Indians away from taking vacations and realised that they are the least likely to get a free pass while vacationing. They are expected to be available to their colleagues and supervisors, making 34 per cent Indians check their emails at least once per day," he added.

For 64 per cent of Indians the impending workload after they come back from vacation is an important factor in deciding the length of their holiday, he said.

"Not surprised to know that 17 per cent of Indians have not taken any leave from past one year. These figures throws light on various factors resulting in making India the most vacation deprived nation in the world," he added.

However, 55 per cent Indians feel that vacation deprivation affect their productivity.

Though the feeling of vacation deprivation among Indians have gone up, their guilt associated with taking a vacation has gone down by 9 per cent to 63 per cent this year compared to the previous year.

One of the leading reasons people don't use their vacation time is because they're saving them for a big trip.