A new study, conducted by Allianz Global Assistance Canada, a leading provider of travel insurance and assistance services, has found that 50 per cent of Canadians log in to their office emails while travelling on vacation. Among them, 24 per cent admitted to check email at least daily, if not several times a day.
The results were gathered in a survey of Canadian travellers by which asked Canadians about their travel habits.
The Ipsos survey also showed that men are the most likely to check their work emails, with 54 per cent responding affirmatively versus 44 per cent of women. However, the greatest differences were associated with age. Some 72 per cent of Millennials say they check their work emails while on vacation, compared with 42 per cent of GenXers and 32 per cent of Baby Boomers.
When asked if they chronicled their trip on social media, 44 per cent of Canadians answered “yes,” led by Millennials at 67 per cent, followed by GenXers at 48 per cent and Boomers at just 22 per cent.
“Posting vacation photos is not entirely unexpected, but it was surprising to learn from the study that nearly three in 10 Canadians (27 per cent) admit to posting photos that make their vacation look better than it actually is,” says Dan Keon, Vice President, Market Management, Allianz Global Assistance Canada. “Once again, Millennials led the way with 50 per cent of them admitting they post ‘better-than-reality’ photos compared to 26 per cent of GenXers and only 7 per cent of Boomers.”
A similar survey was conducted in the summer of 2018 by Allianz Global Assistance USA, and a comparison seems to indicate that Canadians may be more deceptive with their vacation posts. While 50 per cent of Canadian Millennials admitted to deceptive posts, only 36 per cent of American Millennials claimed they did so, while 26 per cent of Canadian GenXers said they post better-than-reality photos, only 15 per cent of American GenXers claimed they did the same.
“This is the third year for our Winter Vacation Confidence Index, but the first time we have polled Canadians about their use of social media while travelling,” adds Keon. “Beyond capturing and sharing amazing travel memories, our smartphones are a valuable aid in a travel emergency. Our assistance centre in Kitchener, ON, receives approximately two million calls every year from Canadian travellers in need of medical or travel assistance. Having your smartphone available while travelling makes it that much easier to reach us if an emergency unexpectedly arises. Travellers with smartphones can also benefit from our free TripWise app, which provides users with a number of helpful features including phone numbers for local emergency services, a GPS locator for nearby medical providers, flight status tracker, and more.”
