According to a recent survey conducted by Holiday Hypermarket, Londoners on average take twice as many holidays as their northern counterparts.
The Capital takes more holidays in a year than anywhere else in the country. This year, Londoners took an average of 3.9 breaks, an increase of 3.3% from 2013.
They also took the most foreign holidays per person, 11% of Londoners took 4 or more foreign holidays in the last 12 months, compared to just 2% in the East.
But why such regional disparity?
We can’t even blame the North-South divide, as the South East has the longest time on average since their last holiday at 13 months.
Perhaps the stresses of city life hit hardest, meaning Londoners yearn to get away as much as they can. Although the cost of living dwarfs that of anywhere else, Londoners still on average earn more than the rest of the country so maybe it’s simply down to being able to afford it. 64% of those in the North West however, cannot.
Across the board there seems to be an ever-growing emphasis on the importance of taking a break. Up in Scotland, 76% of people surveyed believe it is unhealthy not to take an annual get-away, while a worrying 60% of those in the North East probably need to speak to a counsellor after saying they “can’t take it anymore” at work.
Studies have shown that motivation drops considerably without a holiday, with many people seeing a holiday as the only chance they really get to ‘live’ rather than just existing for work. 80% of people in the South West said that they feel more productive following a holiday having allowed their batteries to recharge, the same probably applies to the rest of the country.
Certain factors trigger us to book our next holiday, most of these are work related such as ongoing problems or a boss who takes multiple holidays. For Londoners, the daily commute and bad weather are some of the biggest contributors to their need to get away.
Although at this time of year, summer is fast becoming a distant memory and our holidays are well and truly over, that doesn’t mean we’ve stopped thinking about our next one.
