Vacation Deprivation Levels Reach 10-Year High as Working Adults Navigate Inflation

by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 3:55 PM ET, Thu April 27, 2023

On the heels of a global pandemic that brought the travel industry to a halt and forced people around the world to social distance, it’s not entirely shocking that many of us are in need of a vacation.

Add to that two years of inflation putting a pinch on people’s budgets, and once again vacations take a back seat. A new study from Expedia confirms as much. The just released Vacation Deprivation study from the travel booking platform finds that global vacation deprivation levels have reached a 10-year high.

The study, which involved polling more than 14,500 people across 16 countries, reveals that some of the most commonly cited barriers to vacations include navigating inflation, workplace labor shortages, and the age-old “busy schedules.”

“Vacation Deprivation is feeling like you don’t have enough vacation time, but it’s a sneakier, more complex syndrome than that,” Melanie Fish, head of Expedia Group brands public relations, said in a statement. “Vacation deprivation is also not taking all the vacation time you’re entitled to because planning feels overwhelming. Expedia is really focused on making it easier for travelers to go, whether that's through flexible rates, price tracking for flights or member savings.”

Still, it’s not all doom and gloom on the vacation front.

Even faced with all of the aforementioned challenges, a whopping 81 percent of travelers globally are planning to take as many—if not more—trips in 2023. These same individuals say they plan to travel “no matter what.” This squares with several other recently released reports, which indicate that summer 2023 is shaping up to be incredibly busy.

And here's still more news that should not be entirely shocking—given the penchant among Americans for working tirelessly. The study found that Americans receive and take the fewest vacations annually, compared to the rest of the world.

Americans, on average, receive a paltry 12 days of vacation annually. (Meaning employers really need to step up and do the right thing here.) But even with so few vacation days, American workers still don’t use them all. The study found that on average Americans take 11 vacation days each year.

Here are some of the other key takeaways from the global study:

63 percent of U.S. working adults report they are vacation deprived, up from 59 percent last year.
62 percent of U.S. respondents said they regularly go 6 to 12 months or more between vacations.
More than half of the U.s. (58 percent) and global (56 percent) respondents said their workplace or industry is currently battling labor shortages that make it challenging to take time of.
Despite 72 percent feeling impacted by inflation, Americans do continue to prioritize travel. On average, they are twice as likely to cut back on their grocery bills and dining out before considering postponing a vacation.

Meanwhile, it seems more Americans are at least investigating taking a summer vacation this year. Expedia’s flight data shows that searches for summer getaways are up 25 percent year-over-year. This, says Expedia, indicates that Americans are at least on the path to reduce vacation deprivation in 2023.

Whether they actually achieve that goal in the year ahead, remains to be seen.

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