Australians amass record annual leave entitlements

New research from Roy Morgan shows Australian workers have accrued a record 175 million days in annual leave entitlements - up 15.7% on pre-pandemic levels - after international and domestic border closures forced them to cancel their planned holidays.

According to newly-released data from Roy Morgan data, more than 6.6 million Australians are sitting on at least two weeks of unused annual leave and about 1.37 million have more than seven weeks’.

With international borders set to remain shut for at least another year, tourism operators are keen for Australians to use up this leave and holiday at home.

Australian Tourism Industry Council Executive Director, Simon Westaway said the industry wanted to reverse the long-running trend of Australians taking long trips overseas but only short trips domestically.

Speaking to The New Daily, Westaway sated “obviously, with the state of our international borders, and the inability to go overseas, we really encourage people to help the Australian tourism industry get back on its feet and to holiday at home.”

Suggesting Australians should take advantage of midweek deals in capital cities and off-peak travel experiences around the country, Westaway went on to add “experiencing some of the parts of our country when the weather is slightly different is not necessarily making it a worse experience.

“We’re a big country and you can see a lot of it. You don’t necessarily have to do it at peak time. You can do it cost effectively.”

Encouraging Australians to holiday at home was the focus of the Federal Government’s post JobKeeper program to subsidise more than 800,000 half-priced airfares in a bid to help local tourism operators, announced in March.

Noting that the marketing campaign was a welcome initiative and noted the caravan industry was booming, Westaway went on to say “a lot more Australians are traveling by caravan and camping more than ever before,” he said.

“And we’re seeing a lot of older Australians taking long trips around the country.”

Although Australia’s capital cities are struggling without a steady influx of international tourists, Westaway said locals were increasingly making trips to Queensland, South Australia and regional parts of Victoria and NSW.

In 2009, then Federal Minister for Tourism, Martin Ferguson launched the ‘No Leave No Life’ campaign to encourage Australians to turn 123 million days of accrued leave into holidays.

The campaign reminded both employers and employees about the importance of taking annual leave and having a break.

Main image courtesy of Outback Ballooning.