Lengthy Vacations vs. Shorter Jaunts: Global Approaches to Travel & Trip Planning

Last week, we examined how paid time off works in the US, UK, and Canada. Now, we’re exploring attitudes about travel & trip planning in these same three countries.

At least half of our respondents in the UK (59%) and Canada (50%) tend to travel for at least one week at a time.  Americans are more divided between predominantly taking week+ trips (38%) and three to four day long weekends (35%).

When asked what influences the decision-making process on where to travel, those living in the UK are foremost swayed by vacation package deals. By contrast, a few aspects factor primarily into play among Americans: choosing a destination their travel companions want to visit, the ability to visit family or friends, and recommendations from friends.

As with their neighbors to the South, Canadians have three primary influencers on their trip destinations: recommendations from friends, flight deals, and vacation package deals.

Given that there’s generally no such thing as a free trip, it may not come as a surprise that one-in-five in each of these three countries have accrued debt from vacations. The silver lining: the majority of these travelers settled their debts within a year.