Residents of the United States enjoy traveling — a lot. According to a study from the US Travel Association, Americans took 1.8 billion domestic leisure trips in 2018 and spent $650 billion in the process. But, despite these impressive statistics, the same study noted that Americans left 768 million paid vacation days on the table in 2018, an average of over six days per full-time worker, and a 9 percent increase over the previous year.
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Americans Wasted 768 Million Vacation Days in 2018
One possible explanation for the unused days is that, according to the study, Americans are finally beginning to receive more paid time off. The average vacation time available increased to 23.9 days per year, up from 23.2 in 2017, meaning that the typical full-time worker in the US has over three weeks of paid time off each year. Of those days, Americans took an average of 17.4.
The issue, typically, is that workers in the US are uncomfortable leaving their jobs behind for fear of falling behind or missing out on a promotion. Another cause may be that many are not in a financial position to travel; the study shows that the higher the wages, the more the workers used their paid time off. Those earning over $150,000 per year left only 3.1 days on the table. 