The financial capital of the country has emerged as the most vacation-deprived city among the five surveyed towns, as most Mumbaikars enjoy working more than relaxing at vacations, says a recent study.

“Vacations play an important role in maintaining the work-life balance, and general well-being of the employees while re-energising them to be more focused at work.

“However, Mumbaikars lead in enjoying work more than relaxing at vacations as a majority of them take lesser vacation days than they are awarded,” Expedia Managing Director, Asia, Vikram Malhi said.

This, he said, makes Mumbaikars top the vacation-deprived city among the other surveyed towns in the country.

According to online travel agency Expedia.com’s 2014 Vacation Deprivation report, 97 per cent of Mumbaikars are vacation-deprived, 96 per cent are willing to make sacrifices for extra vacation days and 42 per cent feel guilty for taking a vacation.

However, the capital city of Delhi is the least vacation-deprived, the report said.

In Delhi, people start planning for the next vacation within a week of coming back and most (99 per cent) are willing to make sacrifices like giving up on television and junk food for an additional vacation day.

“Delhiites are least vacation-deprived as compared to other metro cities in India. About 60 per cent of people in Delhi would prefer more vacation days instead of money.

They are also ready to sacrifice on things such as junk food, Internet and television, but find it relatively difficult to part with their booze for an extra day of vacation.

About 7 per cent of them actually book it before landing back from their current vacation,” Malhi said.

The Expedia survey was conducted in five cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad by Northstar from August 25 to September 17, 2014.

Puneites, despite having the most supportive bosses, feel they are vacation-deprived, because most of them feel they do not get enough vacation days, the survey said.

Almost half of Puneites start to relax as soon as they start their vacation and three-fourths of them associate overall happiness with vacation, it added.

It further said that Puneites are ready to give up dessert, social media, sex, taking a shower and Internet for one extra day of vacation.

Bangalore is at the top for several short vacations or long weekends instead of one long vacation.

The survey said Bangaloreans are workaholics as they are the highest to start enjoying their vacation when almost more than half of it is over.

Almost half of them blame it on their spouse or partner, work demands or other family members for not taking vacations. They make up by taking multiple short vacations, it said.

It added that even as Hyderabadis are the highest to travel for weddings or family obligations, about 52 per cent never take all vacation days that they are entitled to and 67 per cent prefer a pay raise over more vacation days.

The survey found that for Hyderabadis, vacation planning is the number one priority and they plan their next vacation within more than a month of returning from holiday.

A quarter of these vacations are related with weddings or family obligations, highest amongst the cities surveyed, it added.

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