Tourism Plea to turn Aus Day into a Long Weekend, not ‘obvious’ sickie

Australian flag flip flop thongs on a beach

THE TOURISM SECTOR IS ENCOURAGING AUSSIES TO TAKE AN AUSTRALIA DAY LONG WEEKEND HOLIDAY WITH 134 MILLION ANNUAL LEAVE DAY STOCKPILE.

Australians are being encouraged to tap into their massive stockpile of 134 million days of accrued annual leave to turn the upcoming Australia Day public holiday into a long weekend by peak industry group the Tourism & Transport Forum Australia (TTF).

According to Roy Morgan Research, Australians have collectively 133,737,000 days’ worth of accrued annual leave – that’s an average of 16 days per full-time working Australian. Amazingly, 3 per cent of workers have more than 10 weeks or more of annual leave locked away and 17 per cent don’t know how the current balance of their annual leave says the research.

This year Australia Day falls on a Thursday (26 January), which means using an annual leave day on Friday (27 January) enables Australians to create a four day long weekend.

“There is nothing more quintessentially Australian than having a summer getaway and the upcoming Australia Day public holiday presents one last opportunity to take a well-deserved break before 2017 kicks into full gear,” said Margy Osmond, TTF CEO.

“Using the 134 million days of stored annual leave is a win-win for everybody. Employees get a chance to take a break and recharge their batteries and employers can reduce the liability of unused leave on their books, with the added benefit of re-energised workers.

“I encourage all Australians who are sitting on a small mountain of annual leave to have the conversation with their employer today to use just one of those days to have a long weekend away with the Australia Day public holiday.

“You should use your annual leave – don’t try to pull a ‘sickie’, it is obvious to everyone!” Ms Osmond said the TTF summer consumer survey revealed intrastate travel (53 per cent) is most popular for a summer getaway followed by interstate (22 per cent) and New Zealand (6 per cent).

“There are thousands of great destinations across our island continent that are just begging for you to visit this summer – so get out there this weekend and experience what our wondrous land has to offer.”

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