The chart above shows the average vacation expenditures for overnight stays by EU and US state in US dollars. As a whole, Americans spend more on their vacations than their European counterparts do.
Findings
- The difference between the state with the greatest vacation spending, Alaska, and the state with the least, Latvia, is $721.40.
- Alaska has 6.56 times the average vacation expenditures that Latvia does.
- The median vacation spending for the 50 US states is $614.50 and the mean is $627.30.
- The median vacation spending for the 28 EU states is $307.70 and the mean is $348.50.
- The median vacation spending for the 78 EU and US states is $574.90 and the mean is $527.20.
- Only four states' citizens spend over $800 on their trips: Alaska, Luxembourg, New Hampshire, and Maryland.
- All states that spend less than $400 are from the EU.
Caveats
- United Kingdom data is from 2013, all other data is from 2015.
- US data is for domestic travel only whereas EU travel includes international. International travel spending for US states ranges from $2,482.18 to $4,778.72.
- EU and US data come from different sources.
- EU data was converted from euros to dollars at the average 2015 0.90 euros to dollars rate.
Details
If international travel were to be included, the lowest US state would spend over three times that of the highest spending EU state. This is most likely due to trans-oceanic air fares and that only the more well off could afford trips like that which allows for more spending.
It is interesting to see that Americans spend more on vacations considering that they tend to have less vacation days than their European counterparts. The next series of posts will look at vacation spending relative to per capita GDP to allow for a clearer picture.
Sources
Reward Expert. 2018. "Average Cost of Vacations by State." Accessed August 20, 2018. https://www.rewardexpert.com/blog/studies/average-cost-of-vacations-by-state/.