Here Are The Disturbing Reasons Vacations Are Getting Shorter

A moment of silence for the American vacation, please. If it is not dead, it's well on its way to extinction, according to troubling new research. Long vacations are out, and short vacations called microcations are in.

Most Americans (57%) took leisure trips of no more than four nights in the past year, according to the study by Allianz Global Assistance. The younger you are, the likelier you are to take a short vacation. In a separate study, the travel insurance company found that just over half of Americans have not taken a week-long vacation in more than a year.

“Americans are still consistently underutilizing their paid time off," says Allianz spokesman Daniel Durazo. 

Put it all together and it spells trouble for the traditional two-week American vacation. In fact, if you're reading this, you may be part of the trend. Maybe you're not on vacation — but you should be.

Why have vacations gotten shorter, and even disappeared? The reasons range from a deficit of vacation time to feeling that taking a vacation creates a backlog of work when you return home. And there's also an overall feeling of that the few vacations we take have become too elaborate. That's leading to a staycation trend — simply staying home and not going anywhere.

"When you have a demanding job, it can often be impossible to take vacation time," says Buddy Baum, a photographer from Broomfield, Colo. "Even when you technically have it at your disposal. A week away may mean two weeks of late nights and early mornings just to catch up — not to mention the constant emails from your annoyed co-workers."

There's ample evidence that vacations are getting shorter. Innkeepers report the average duration of a stay has been steadily decreasing over the years, according to bnbfinder.com, a site that helps people book small inns. 

"We've been seeing a trend toward micro-vacations and mini-moons for quite some time now," says Marti Mayne, a spokeswoman for the site. "We primarily hear from our B&B guests that the shorter vacations are a result of affordability and time. Long gone is the week-long vacation for most time-starved working adults. They can’t get away from demanding jobs for that long, and feel they can’t afford it either."

And the trend keeps accelerating, according to HotelTonight, a site that specializes in microstays. Virtually all of its bookings this year (99%) are for less than five nights, and 77% are for less than two nights. 

According to Hipmunk, the online travel site, people are taking shorter trips, too. The site compared non-business travel bookings made from January through June to bookings made from Jan through June 2016, for both flights and hotels. For flights, zero to three-day bookings increased a total of 9% as a share of all bookings. One-day trips have increased 16% while everything over five days saw a decrease in booking share.

As with most trends like this, there are many reasons why Americans are taking less vacation time.

They're easier. Microcations are so much easier to plan and execute, say experts. "In some ways, these smaller vacations can be less stressful, less packing and no flying, less expense," says Rhonda Weaver, a travel agent and microcation expert who publishes the travel blog Roaming Red Feather. 

Our attention spans are short. That's a function of our "always-on" society, where everything seems to get abbreviated into short text messages. "I get bored of cities really quickly," admits Chanhong Luu, a teacher. "For example, I went to Los Angeles and only stayed two nights because I only had two days of stuff to do. There wasn't anything else I wanted to do. Almost allof my adult vacations have been microcations."

You can maximize your vacation days. Mike Gnitecki, who works for a university in Tyler, Texas, has taken microcations in New York and Washington, D.C., this year. "The key reason to do this is to minimize vacation day usage," he explains. "I can usually just take one vacation day if I time it right. I prefer to take one vacation day at a time, multiple times, and visit more locations, rather than blowing a week worth of vacation time on a single longer trip."

There's hardly any missed work. If you leave over a weekend, you might not miss any work at all. "You will not come back to work with an enormous amount of stuff to do," says Adam Kemp, a professional basketball player and fitness blogger. "As people are becoming busier, it is much more difficult to leave work for long periods of time. When I went on a two-week vacation last summer — the only long vacation I have been on in years — I came back to my computer feeling overwhelmed, not relaxed."

You save money. That's a plus for someone like Laura O'Neal, a public assistance caseworker from Cleveland. She plans vacations in two-, three- and four-day increments for her husband and kids. "We have a limited travel budget," she says. "We also have a dog and a cat who we have to pay to board when we travel. At $60 a day, it adds up fast."

The microcation trend isn't without precedent. Europeans have what's called a "city break," or a short getaway to a nearby metropolitan area, says Carlee Stellfox Loya, a regional manager for GetYourGuide, a booking platform for travel experiences. Her site has noticed a rise in these city breaks since last year. 

"We’ve been talking and hearing about microcations for some time now," she says. "People today are busier than ever. But, at the same time, many have more flexible working hours. That means they’re more willing and able to take advantage of last-minute, lower-cost short-haul flights and last-minute booking apps. Tour operators are seeing shorter booking windows as a result of this trend, too."

Of course, In Europe people also have generous vacation time, which they take in addition to city breaks.

While the reasons for shortening vacation time may seem practical, and even prudent, they are in fact troubling. The benefits of taking a break are undeniable. Shortening or eliminating vacations may lead to burnout or lower productivity. 

You're probably reading this and thinking: He's not writing about me, is he? Oh, but I am. 

Actually, I'll come clean for the sake of honesty in journalism. Technically, I am on vacation. Yet I am filing this story because I can't put my work down.

I know I'm not alone. I talk to people every day who call me from the beach or on their family road trip. What happened to the American vacation? Will it continue to be less relevant as the trend toward microvacations increases?

Source: Forbes.com

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