We all love our summer holiday, but according to a new survey it’s one of the most important contributors to our happiness levels. (Featured image by katerha)
To mark the UN’s first ever International Day of Happiness, which took place on Wednesday, a new survey has looked into how happy travelling makes us.
What are the results? Travelling makes us very happy indeed, more so than buying a house, getting married and even having a baby.
Some 88 per cent of respondents in the G Adventures Happiness Survey said that travel is very important to their happiness – above the global average of 83 per cent.
Interestingly, especially given people’s struggling finances, more than 60 per cent said that being given more time off to travel would make them happier at work and is more important than a pay rise.
With so many workers desperate to get away, it’s little wonder that more than half confess to daydreaming about travel for at least an hour at work.
Almost three quarters of respondents said that travel is the most important factor to their happiness, compared to 8 per cent who said marriage and 7 per cent who chose buying a house.
Showing that we are not a particularly broody nation, just 6 per cent said that having a baby was most important to their happiness.
“We’ve always known the UK is a travelling nation and these results show their love of travel is still higher than the rest of the world,” said Michael Edwards, managing director of G Adventures.
“One of our core values is creating happiness and community and it’s evident through these results that travelling is key to people’s happiness.”
The research also revealed who we like to travel with on our adventures, with family members unsurprisingly coming bottom of the list. A third of Brits prefer to travel alone, including a suspicious 8 per cent of those who are in a relationship.
