Study: Majority of Canadians won't take a break this holiday season

Dec 7 2017, 10:52 pm

As we head into the busy holiday season, a number of Canadians will be counting down the days until their winter vacation.

However, despite these lucky few, a majority of Canadians are feeling confident that they won’t get to take a break at all this winter.

According to the second annual Canadian Winter Vacation Confidence Index by Allianz Global Assistance, 71 per cent of Canadians see taking an annual vacation as important, but 59 per cent of Canadians are not confident that they will actually get to take one.

winter holiday

Allianz Global Assistance Canada

To really drive this home, only 54 per cent of Canadians took a vacation of some kind within the past year and 1 in 3 Canadians haven’t taken a vacation in more than TWO YEARS.

“It’s clear from the Index that Canadians want and need a vacation but they are not taking all they are entitled to,” said Dan Keon, Senior Director, Market Management, Allianz Global Assistance Canada.

“According to the Index results, Canadians get 21 paid vacation days per year on average but are only taking 17. There could be many reasons for this but maybe some Canadians are still struggling with that work-life balance.”

A recent study by from Expert Market, a UK-based business-to-business comparison site, found that Canadian parents are the 4th worst in the world for work-life balance, so the findings of this Index don’t come as much of a surprise.

The Index found that in the past two years, Canadian Gen-Xers are more likely (40 per cent) than Millennials (25 per cent) or Boomers (32 per cent) to have skipped taking their annual vacation.

Keon also added that the reason for this has a lot to do with costs, as many Canadians prefer to only travel in off-peak times, with 43 per cent of Canadians reporting they only travel during off-peak times to keep costs down.

Of the few Canadians who travel during peak periods, only 12 per cent said they do so out of personal preference, while 10 per cent said they can only get time off during peak times.

The Index also found that while six in ten Canadians don’t anticipate taking a winter vacation, four in ten (41 per cent) are confident they will take a trip between December and March. Confidence is typically highest in the households with children, where half expect to take a winter vacation.

The findings of the Canadian Winter Vacation Confidence Index were conducted by global market research firm Ipsos, and a total of 2,005 surveys were completed among Canadian adults.

If you’re still trying to decide if you should take a winter vacation this year, these are the top trending winter travel destinations for Canadians.

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Daily Hive StaffDaily Hive Staff

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