“Justication” or “justi-vacation” is a rising trend among Americans who plan big vacations despite low budgets. According to the 16th annual Vacation Confidence Index by Allianz Partners USA, 47% of Americans couldn’t afford a vacation that year. However, 49% of the respondents still said they would travel anyway.
This means that broke Americans are throwing caution to the wind and letting nothing prevent them from having a great vacation. Even with a scarcity of funds, they are planning trips to other countries and destinations in the world just because they “need it mentally.”
Ryann Checchi, 32, a Phoenix resident, is planning a trip to Lisbon, Porto, and Barcelona despite budget constraints.
The idea of looking forward to a vacation is more appealing than an inability to foot the bill. Americans would rather have a lifetime of happiness and memories with friends in exchange for being on a budget every month.
An April Bankrate survey revealed that 36% of summer travelers are willing to pay for vacations even if that lands them in debt. In the previous month, only 27% of Americans were willing to take in debt for vacationing.
According to Travel agent Nicole Cueto, three major factors were triggering this “budget be damned” mentality;
- Social media tends to FOMO
- Burn out
- US politics.
Cueto also discussed that the current state of affairs surrounding US politics, especially the elections, is the main excuse people are using to explore other countries and “options” besides America.
And since the travelers have no cash or funds in the bank, they are relying on credit cards. The majority of these people have indicated plans to use credit cards to pay a part of the total cost of vacationing, according to a summer travel study by NerdWallet.
The late July survey revealed that 20% of these people won’t pay off their full bill in the first statement.
