Sunshine Matters

With more than half (55%) of employees leaving days unused, America’s no vacation tendencies have created a stockpile of 658 million unused days.  What’s worse—employees forfeited 222 million vacation days in 2015.  The more than 600 million unused vacation days represent billions in lost economic potential.  Had Americans used the vacation time they earned in 2015, it would have meant $223 billion in spending for the U.S. economy.

Join us tomorrow, January 31 for National Plan for Vacation Day as we declare our vacation days for the rest of the year, at the start of the year. VISIT FLORIDA is proud to take part in this crucial planning day hosted by U.S. Travel Association’s Project: Time Off initiative.

Project: Time Off is a national movement aimed at winning back America’s lost week of vacation. Emphasizing the importance of planning a vacation, Project: Time Off wants to open the conversation to employers and employees about the benefits of using vacation time.  Here are a couple of videos to get you started; one explaining the movement and another featuring Travel Channel host Samantha Brown.

“Unused time off is not only a missed opportunity for an individual’s health, well-being, and success, but also for businesses who want the best version of their employees,” said Gary Oyster, Managing Director of Project: Time Off.  “National Plan for Vacation Day ensures our hard-earned time off is put to good use for the benefit of all.”

As a member of the Project: Time Off Coalition, VISIT FLORIDA is doing our part to promote National Plan for Vacation Day.  We polled our staff on their Top 5 Florida vacation destinations for 2017 and will be posting about them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram throughout the day tomorrow.  We also created a YouTube playlist of videos from those destinations.

We invite you to join the movement and conversation tomorrow on Facebook by using #PlanForVacation and #LoveFL.