Just 33% Took A Summer Vacation This Year

The FINANCIAL — Fewer adults took a summer vacation this year, and half of those that did had to cut back for economic reasons.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of American Adults shows that just 33% took a summer vacation this year. That’s down from 41% last year and 37% in 2009. Sixty-five percent (65%) of adults say they did not take go on summer vacation.

In a poll taken prior to the summer season, 38% of American Adults planned to take a summer vacation this year, while 54% did not.

Thirty-nine percent (39%) say they took a summer vacation last year, while 58% did not.

Of those who took vacations these past two summers, 51% say current economic conditions forced them to cut back on spending, showing little change from last year. Nearly as many (47%) say the current economy did not force them to cut back on their summer vacation.

The national survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on August 30-31 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

Just three percent (3%) of adults nationwide say the summer of 2011 was the best ever. Thirty-nine percent (39%) rate it as good or excellent. One-third (32%) give it a fair rating, while 23% view it as poor. Overall, Americans think this summer was worse than last year's but more like 2009's.

Labor Day is tomorrow, and 53% of adults think of the day as the unofficial end of summer. Just 34% actually celebrate the "labor" part of the holiday instead, honoring the contributions workers, particularly in organized labor, have made to society. Thirteen percent (13%) are undecided which is more important on Labor Day. A slightly higher number of adults are honoring workers this year compared to last year.

Men are more likely than women to have taken a summer vacation in 2011. Married adults and adults with children living at home are more likely to have gone on vacation compared to adults who are not married and don’t have kids at home.

While 48% of government workers took a summer vacation this year, just 32% of employees in private companies did the same.

In June, roughly half of America’s workers said they’ll use all their vacation time this year, and fewer are connecting with work on their off-time compared to a year ago. 

www.rasmussenreports.com