Project Time Off promotes vacation days to boost economy, employee morale

Making use of all paid vacation days before the end of the year is good for morale and recharging an employee’s mental health, and according to the U.S. Travel Association it’s also vital to strengthening the economy and boosting local tourism.

That’s why the national group, in conjunction with the Myrtle Beach Area of Chamber of Commerce, is pursuing a new promotion called “Project Time Off,” which encourages workers to take advantage of the time they are owed -- which would also boost the travel industry.

The chamber recently held a forum on the promotion to share the vacation philosophy with its members along the Grand Strand to educate employers as well as employees.

“If we as an industry are going to lead the culture change, we have to change our behavior too, and we wanted people in the community to learn more about it and help employers prioritize,” said Brad Dean, president of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.

Nearly 170 million vacation days were forfeited by employees in 2013, according to the Travel Association’s website, which also affects the bottom line of a business when unused days are carried as a liability on the balance sheets. That liability totaled $66 billion in 2014.

“This is a lose-lose proposition -- it’s impacting the workplace,” Dean said.

“If we can turn this around, there’s a natural gain, not only in enhancing the economy, but serving to improve the health and well-being of our employees.”

If workers used up all their vacation and personal days, it would result in an estimated boost of $160 billion to the national economy and $21 billion to federal, state and local coffers while creating 1.2 million new jobs, the Travel Association says.

Americans used to gobble up vacation days, but when the economy slumped over the last decade, employees found themselves working longer hours to make up for a smaller workforce, or were afraid of losing their own jobs and put in extra time to bank up their job security.

Dean called it the work martyr syndrome.

“If we can get beyond the work martyr culture and change behavior, it would deliver a huge economic prize and improve our quality of life,” Dean said.

“We could give more time back to the community, spend more time with parents, children or grandchildren,” Dean said.

“This goes well beyond travel and changing the cultural mindset,” Dean said. “Far too many employees have accepted that we don’t use all the time off we’ve earned – are we teaching our children to behave this same way?”

Contact Hudson 843-444-1765

Twitter: @AudreyHudson

This story was originally published December 28, 2015 at 12:18 AM with the headline "Project Time Off promotes vacation days to boost economy, employee morale."