A worldwide survey of travellers has revealed that the Dutch are the most relaxed holiday-makers, with 67 per cent of Dutch people saying they are able to relax easily as soon as they are on vacation.
Travel agency Expedia surveyed 8.500 people in countries around the world, asking questions about how they felt on their holidays.
The discovered that the Dutch are far better at relaxing while away than people in other countries.
For example, around one-quarter of Germans and Spaniards revealed that they take a couple of days to relax, while 18 per cent of Japanese said they never felt totally relaxed on holiday.
Only six per cent of Dutch people admitted that they never really relax on holiday. This comparably low number may be in part because of the Dutch ability to leave work behind.
Only just over half of Dutch people check their work email or voicemail while away, compared to 98 per cent of the workaholic French and 87 per cent of the busy Italians.
One reason why Dutch people might be comfortable letting it all go is that they feel confident that their boss is happy for them to take time off from work.
A majority of people in the Netherlands (62 per cent) felt that their boss is supportive of their holiday, which makes it easier for them to relax. Only 44 per cent of Italians and 49 per cent of Germans felt that was the case with their boss.
The Dutch get on average 25 holiday days a year, of which they usually take 21, in addition to the Dutch public holidays.
Another discovery of the survey was that once the Dutch have made the decision to go away, they generally don't let anything hold them back.
More than half of the Dutch people surveyed said that they generally don’t have any reason not go to away, with only 31 per cent saying they did have a reason to stay at home, 10 per cent citing economic reasons.
Compare that to 22 per cent of Americans and Canadians, 25 per cent of Thais, 27 per cent of Koreans, 28 per cent of Spaniards and 30 per cent of Italians who said they could not afford to take a vacation.
This survey reflects other research that correlated amount of holidays with life satisfaction and concluded that the Dutch are the happiest workers in the world. The fact that many companies offer their employees vakantiegeld (holiday money) to spend while they are away probably doesn’t hurt either.
Source: Nu.nl