KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians are the third most vacation-deprived people globally, a survey by Expedia has revealed.

The top online travel portal recently released its 17th annual survey on vacation deprivation, in which almost two-thirds of Malaysians questioned said that they are “very” or “somewhat” vacation-deprived.



Expedia Southeast Asia and India General Manager, Simon Fiquet, said the primary reasons for the deprivation are budgetary or affordability issues, the desire to save up vacation days for longer holidays, and the inability to get away from work.

He said the survey, which involved 15,000 full-time working adults in 30 markets, revealed that vacation deprivation is on the rise worldwide, with 53 per cent of respondents feeling vacation-deprived in 2017, compared to 49 per cent in 2016.

“Compared with the Americas and Europe, the Asia-Pacific region is leading the pack as the most vacation-deprived region, with South Korea topping the list, followed by France and Malaysia.



“Malaysia has been in the top five of most vacation-deprived countries since 2015,” he said at a media briefing on the survey findings here.



Hong Kong, India and Singapore are the three other Asia-Pacific countries in the top 10 of the list.

Fiquet said that the survey also showed that one out of three Malaysians still check their work-related e-mail or voice mail at least once a day while on vacation; and find it hard to detach themselves from work – thus corroborating another finding that they do not get to fully enjoy their vacation.

Across the sectors, Fiquet said the survey found that those in the marketing and media-related industries are the most vacation-deprived globally, followed by those in the food and beverages and agricultural sectors.



Expedia also revealed that in Singapore - which ranked seventh in the list of most vaction-deprived countries - close to half of full-time workers take fewer days of annual leave than the amount they receive, even though their employers were supportive.

Part of it is due to the employees' desire to save their leave days in case something comes up in the future.

Other reasons cited why workers in Singapore do not use up all their vacation time include having a tough work schedule and having insufficient resources to handle their workload while they were away.

