Many people look forward to holidays as an opportunity to be carefree and relax – but a survey has found that money worries follow some holidaymakers around for several days of their break or even persist for the whole trip.
Just more than a quarter (27%) of holidaymakers who worry about money while away said they do manage to switch off straight away, the research commissioned by app thinkmoney found.
By the end of the first day on holiday, the proportion rises to 38%.
But it takes up to three days before the majority of holidaymakers with money worries have left their financial concerns behind, the research indicated.
By that point, just over half (53%) have switched off, according to the survey.
But more than two-fifths (42%) said they either take most of the holiday to switch off or never fully manage it at all, the survey found.
The research also found that holidaymakers from the West Midlands are particularly unlikely to have shed their money worries after the first day of their holiday, with 66% of those with financial concerns unable to shake them off by this point. They are closely followed by people from the East Midlands (65%) and London (65%).
By contrast, people from Wales were particularly likely to say they had put their money worries aside by the end of the first day of their holiday. More than half (56%) of people from Wales with money concerns said they are still worrying after day one of their holiday.
People from some parts of the UK were particularly likely to say they could not shake off their financial worries completely while on holiday.
Nearly half (48%) of financially worried holidaymakers from Scotland said they either take most of their holiday to switch off or never fully manage it. They were closely followed by holidaymakers from Yorkshire and the Humber (47%), according to the research.
More than 2,000 people across the UK were surveyed in June.
The holiday switching off analysis was based on more than 1,000 people in the survey who said they experience money worries while on holiday and provided a definite timeframe for how long it takes them to switch off.
Vix Leyton, a consumer expert at thinkmoney, said: “You can’t put your money worries on airplane mode.
“For some people, the first few days of a holiday are still being spent mentally adding up what they’ve spent, checking whether there’s enough left for the rest of the trip and thinking about the bills waiting at home.”
To help leave money worries at home, Ms Leyton suggested setting a holiday budget, checking which household bills are due to be paid during the trip, and checking banking apps to help prevent overspending while on holiday.
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