Vacations too expensive, say the 28% with no summer holiday plans

28 percent of Dutch are not going on holiday this summer, compared to 25 percent last year. The vast majority of them say that vacation is simply too expensive, according to Nibud's annual survey on how Dutch spend their holiday pay, NU.nl reports.

Dutch are increasingly using their holiday pay to catch up on arrears or to pay off debts. Four years ago, 12 percent of Dutch spent their holiday pay in this way. Now that is 18 percent.

People with unstable incomes, like temporary workers, on-call workers, freelancers, and self-employed people, go on holiday less often than people working in paid employment. Dutch with a permanent contract often book multiple vacations a year and are less worried about the costs that a vacation entails, the researchers found.

Of the 72 percent of Dutch who are going on vacation this summer, half expect to spend 2 thousand euros or more on their holiday. The other half expect to spend less than that amount.