A new survey has revealed that 42 percent of Slovaks can't afford to go on a holiday, and that they don't want to go into debt for it. The survey covered a sample of 8040 clients from the financial services group Provident Financial, carried out by the agency GFK. Half of the Slovaks asked declared they would spend more than €270 on a holiday, while 15 percent of Slovaks would choose to take a holiday within Slovakia and 20 percent would go abroad. The survey focused on other countries too, targeting the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Mexico, with the worst case being Hungary, where 57 percent people can't afford to go on holiday. Bulgarians came next (40 percent), followed by Romanians and Czechs (both 30 percent), with the latter typically putting money aside for holidays. Only six percent of those asked were willing to borrow money for a holiday, but not from relatives or friends. Only eight percent of those asked want to spend more on their holidays than they did last year.

Gavin Shoebridge, Photo: TASR