Zoey Ramey
Blog Post

May 25,  2016

Take a Vacation and Help the Economy

Does taking a vacation help the economy?  Most employees don’t use their vacation time. Employees aren’t using the time they earned by working. Americans left an average of 3.2 paid time off days unused in 2013, totaling 429 million unused days for U.S. workers. If employees used their vacation time the economy would benefit from more than $160 billion in total business sales and $21 billion in tax revenues, spending that would support 1.2 million jobs.  If employees used even an extra day of their vacation time the company would have more total revenue and raise the GDP.The total contribution of travel and tourism was $7.61 trillion. It has also been shown that more employees use vacation time when consumer confidence increases. People won’t travel as much as they used to. The decline in vacations started in the 2000’s.  Gas averages are $2.36/gallon which is down from $3.80/gallon last year. 3-diamond hotel's average $142/night decreased down from $161/night last year.  Taking a vacation also increases revenue for economies that thrive on tourist bringing in a portion of revenue.

Travel cost has increased which can affect the opportunity cost of travel by having substitute activities like staying home.  Consumers not using their vacation time can affect the GDP of towns and countries that depend on the revenue of tourist. Consumers can be scared of traveling because of negative externalities. Some would include phobias and dangerous weather like heights, hurricanes, and earthquakes. 6.5% of the population have a fear of traveling. Most of the time though consumers that are not unemployed just want to cash in their vacation time and get a check. What they don’t know is that hurts them and the economy more than they know. The companies have to adjust and account the loss in their spending budget. If the consumers use their vacation time the company would not lose money and be able to reinvest into the economy leading to an overall improvement.

Work Cited

"Economics Online." Negative externalities. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 May 2017.

DePillis, Lydia. "Lots of Americans fear flying. But not because of plane crashes." The Washington Post. WP Company, 31 Dec. 2014. Web. 29 May 2017.

Seaney, Rick, Ceo Of, Href, Http, WWW.FARECOMPARE, Target, External, and Farecompare. "Fear of Flying? Some Good Things to Know." ABC News. ABC News Network, 07 Oct. 2013. Web. 29 May 2017.

Mohn, Tanya. "Take A Vacation: It's Good For Productivity And The Economy, According To A New Study." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 01 Mar. 2014. Web. 29 May 2017.

Thompson, Derek. "The Case for Vacation: Why Science Says Breaks Are Good for Productivity." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 06 Aug. 2012. Web. 29 May 2017.

Share this post