Even the French do not always have enough money for a good holiday
According to RFI (French International Radio), for several years now, holidays have become one of the budget items on which the French can save money. According to data from the French opinion institute OpinionWay, in recent years, spending on tourism by the French themselves has been slowly but steadily decreasing. Spending reached a record low during the spring holidays of 2016.
According to OpinionWay data, only one in five French people plans to go somewhere this spring; the rest will stay home due to financial problems. Lack of money is the main reason cited by the French who participated in the survey. Moreover, 43% of families simply have no money for holidays, 31% prefer to use their savings for other needs, and 19% cannot take time off work during this period. The remaining 7% will still go somewhere for the holidays, but they also prefer to spend as little as possible during their vacation – on average 10% less than usual.
As Frédéric Michaud, director of the OpinionWay institute, says, the result of the latest survey differs significantly from previous ones: “This is the weakest result ever recorded by our agency. It is 5% lower than last year’s spring holidays. And the main reason for this decline is financial. People either have no money at all for holidays, or they spend all their savings on other purposes. Overall, the trend of recent holidays is this: the French travel less, and if they do go, they don’t go for long, and they try to spend less money on trips. The average budget for these spring holidays is 717 euros. That is 60 euros less than the average budget for the spring holidays of 2015.”
Data from French motorways confirm the survey: this weekend there were practically no traffic jams on the roads, which is unusual for the start of the holiday season.