Aussies deprived of holidays
Wednesday May 24 16:16 AEST
The French are holiday gluttons and the Germans have oodles of time to travel but Australians, it seems, are leave deprived.
Online travel company Expedia.com.au's annual holiday survey has found Australians recorded an average of 17 annual leave days - the second lowest in the study.
And we have the worst score when it comes to actually taking time off, with 35 per cent of Australians not taking all their annual leave.
The survey, taken in April this year, compares annual leave trends in France, Germany, Great Britain, Canada, Australia and the United States.
The French top the list with an average of 39 annual leave days.
And almost 40 per cent of them claim they feel better about their job after returning from leave.
The Germans are in second place with 27 days and the British get a generous 24 days.
Meanwhile, Canadians, Australians and Americans receive an average of 19, 17 and 14 days.
On a state by state basis in Australia, Queensland was the most holiday deprived with 16.1 days annual leave compared to the Northern Territory which topped the poll with 26.8 days.
Expedia spokeswoman Katrina Richardson said other countries were much better at taking holidays than Australians.
"Australians may be surprised by these comparisons because we are generally known as travellers and adventurers who love our holidays," she said.
"Although we receive one of the lowest numbers of annual leave days, we really can't complain.
"Thirty five per cent of working Australians simply don't use all their leave."
The survey found that 39 per cent of holidaying Aussies still take the traditional two-week break, while 21 per cent take a one week break with several power weekends throughout the year.
Research by Tourism Australia has found Australians overall have stockpiled a massive 70 million days of annual leave.
It has launched a No Leave, No Life program to encourage workers to use up all their leave.
©AAP 2006
