Almost one in two French people will not go on vacation this summer. According to a Cluster 17* survey for Le Point, only 53% have planned to take a summer vacation this year. A third of the population (30%) will leave for more than two weeks and a quarter for less than a fortnight (23%). Conversely, 47% of French people will not leave. Among them, half (47%) mention a lack of financial means, a figure down 9 points from last summer. The others prefer to go at another time of the year (27%), do not want to go (18%) or do not have holidays (8%).
The study also reveals major divisions in the French population. Workers are three times more likely (63%) than managers (21%) not to go on vacation this summer. Craftsmen, traders and business leaders are also numerous not to leave (57%), while 53% of retirees, 48% of employees and 36% of liberal professions are not leaving. Despite often tighter budgets, 18-24 year olds are the most likely to go on holiday (75%), ahead of 25-34 year olds (59%), 65-74 year olds (55%) and 50-64 year olds (53%), 35-49 year olds (49%) and over 75 year olds (33%).
Unsurprisingly, those with the highest incomes leave the most. Three quarters of French people (76%) who earn more than 5,000 euros per month will travel this summer. French people whose income is less than 1,000 euros will be in the same proportion not to leave (77%). Another notable disparity: it is in the smallest municipalities that the French go on vacation the least. One in two inhabitants of a municipality of less than 9,000 inhabitants will not leave, compared to around four in ten French people in municipalities of more than 3,000 inhabitants.
Marine Le Pen’s electorate is the one who will go on vacation the least: 58% of its voters will stay at home this summer, compared to 37% of Emmanuel Macron’s voters, who are the most likely to go on vacation. Éric Zemmour voters are 38% not to go on vacation, those of Jean-Luc Mélenchon 40%, those of Yannick Jadot 42%, those of Valérie Pécresse 51% and abstentionists 49%. Among the reasons given, Lepenist voters mostly mention a lack of means (59%), while Macronists prefer above all to leave at another time of the year (42%).
If France remains the preferred destination (71%), the share of respondents who will leave for France has lost 7 points compared to last year. Cluster 17 sees it as “perhaps a symbol of a return to mobility when the Covid epidemic and its innumerable constraints now seem to be a thing of the past”. The polling institute also notes a “cleavage” between a “nomadic” people and a “sedentary” people: 36% of executives, higher intellectual professions and intermediate professions will go abroad this summer, when it will be the case for only 10% of workers.
Holidays by the sea are favored by 58% of French people who leave. The mountains attract a third of French people and the countryside, a quarter of respondents, particularly among the left-wing electorate. For their accommodation, 17% of French people rent a guest room or an apartment, 10% go to stay with friends or family, 9% to a hotel, 7% to their second home and 7% to a campsite. This remains the popular destination par excellence, according to Cluster 17. 23% of 18-24 year olds will stay there. This is the case for 11% of Marine Le Pen voters, compared to only 1% of Emmanuel Macron voters.
*Study carried out by Cluster 17 for “Le Point” with a sample of 1,747 people representative of the French population aged 18 and over. The sample is drawn up according to the quota method, with regard to the criteria of sex, age, socio-professional category, type of municipality and regions of residence. Online self-administered questionnaire. Interviews conducted from June 23 to 24, 2023.