We should live for holidays!

For all those of us living in Mumbai, it comes as no news to learn that Mumbai is the most vacation-deprived city. Online travel agency, Expedia, conducted a survey in five cities - Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

The survey in a sense depicts the lifestyle of the cities. The average Mumbaikar enjoys working more than vacationing as that is what was learnt from the survey. Some 97% of Mumbaikar’s are vacation deprived, 96%  are willing to make sacrifices for extra vacation days and 42% feel guilty for taking a vacation. On the other hand, it comes as no surprise to know that Delhi topped the ‘least vacation-deprived’ city where 99% start planning on their next vacation within a week of coming back and equal percentage of people are willing to make sacrifices like giving up on television and junk food for an additional vacation day.

Bangalore is at the top for several short vacations or long weekend instead of one long vacation, which again is a reflection of the work life there, the hard IT life. And Hyderabadis are rated the highest to travel for weddings or family obligations, where 52% never take all vacation days that they are entitled to and 67% prefer a pay raise over more vacation days. And Puneites feel that they do not enough number of days for vacationing and 75% of those surveyed associated vacationing to being happy.

Sometimes, we feel that some surveys are so frivolous and almost meaningless. But if one looks closely, no such study of human behavior, which is essentially what a survey is, could go waste. We just need to sift through the chaff and look for the real grain.