Make America Take Vacation Again

National Plan for Vacation Day, a day to encourage Americans to plan their vacation days for the rest of the year at the start of the year. Launched by Project: Time Off in 2017, National Plan for Vacation Day provides an opportunity for everyone—the travel industry and its travelers—to come together and rally around the importance of planning for vacation.

Why does it matter?

Here are some stats from Project: Time Off.

• In 2016, more than half of American workers (54 percent) left a total of 662 million vacation days unused. The impact of this time is a $236 billion opportunity.
• Since 2000, vacation usage has been steadily declining. In 2016, workers reported taking off just 16.8 days—almost a full week less than compared to the pre-2000 average of 20.3 days.
• Vacation is essential to strengthen personal relationships, inspire creative thinking, improve professional performance and promote better health.

The most effective remedy for American workers who want to use more vacation days is better planning. Yet just over half (54 percent) of households set aside time to plan the use of vacation time each year.

How can planning help?

Again, here are some stats from Project: Time Off.

• 52 percent of planners took all of their vacation time, versus 40 percent of non-planners.
• 75 percent of planners were more likely to take a full week of vacation time or more at a time. Non-planners take significantly fewer days at once (zero to three) than planners (42 percent to 18 percent).

Unused vacation days are days Americans can be traveling. Encourage Americans to take a moment today, declare their vacation days for the rest of the year and start planning a trip.

Written by Cassie Westrate, staff writer for Groups Today.