Indians among most vacation deprived: Survey

New Delhi: "All work, no play" may be the credo India's young workforce swears by. The youth may be India's demographic dividend, but they are also among the most vacation deprived in the world, a survey said. According to a Vacation Deprivation survey, India has emerged as the fourth most vacation deprived country after Japan, the U.S. and Australia. Young Indians have a tendency of being workoholics as a "as a means to achieve faster career growth," says the study by online travel company Expedia.co. The study says that on an average, Indians are entitled to 26 annual leave days but are able to avail of 22 leave days on an average. However, 35 percent of those surveyed said they were not able to take more than 15 days of annual leaves. The survey was carried out amongst service class professionals at managerial levels and above in 11 countries in 2010, with over 1,000 respondents per country. The India survey was conducted in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. Japan, the most holiday-deprived nation for the second year in a row, receives on average 16.5 days of annual leave. However, 94 percent of Japanese do not take all their leave days, taking on an average just 9 days of their entitled annual leaves. On the other hand, in France, which ranks as the world's most holiday-rich nation, the average employee receives 37.5 annual leave days per year (and takes on an average 34.5 of those days). "This is the first time that we have undertaken the annual Vacation Deprivation survey in India. The study provides interesting insights into the key factors discouraging most Indians from taking their vacation - lack of choice and flexibility in the holiday offers emerged a few factors," said Expedia.co.in marketing head Manmeet Ahluwalia. The survey shows only 37 percent of the respondents from India were able to take all their vacation leaves. Over 22 percent Indian respondents stated that their bosses were not supportive of employees taking all of their annual leave entitlements. Moreover, Indians showed greater orientation towards family holidays. Over 18 percent respondents did not take their vacations because their spouse or children could not getting leaves at the same time.