Canadians aren’t very good at shutting it down on holidays. It also seems we may be more prone to exaggerating our vacation photos than our American friends, and that Canadian women are better at leaving the office behind then men.

A new study by Allianz Global Assistance Canada find that half of Canadians say they check their office emails while travelling on vacation. Of those, 24% say they do so at least once, if not several times, each day.

The results were gathered in a survey of Canadian travellers by Allianz Global Assistance Canada, a leading provider of travel insurance and assistance services, which asked Canadians about their travel habits.

The Ipsos survey also revealed that men are the most likely to check their work emails, with 54% responding affirmatively versus 44% of women. However, the greatest differences were associated with age. Some 72% of Millennials say they check their work emails while on vacation, compared with 42% of GenXers and 32% of Baby Boomers.

When asked if they chronicled their trip on social media, 44% of Canadians answered ‘yes,’ led by Millennials at 67%, followed by GenXers at 48% and Boomers at just 22%. (Guess that puts this reporter in the Boomer minority, but, hey, it’s my job.)

“Posting vacation photos is not entirely unexpected, but it was surprising to learn from the study that nearly three in 10 Canadians (27%) admit to posting photos that make their vacation look better than it actually is,” says Dan Keon, Vice President, Market Management, Allianz Global Assistance Canada. “Once again, Millennials led the way with 50% of them admitting they post ‘better-than-reality’ photos compared to 26% of GenXers and only seven per cent of Boomers.”

A similar survey was conducted in the summer of 2018 by Allianz Global Assistance USA, and a comparison seems to indicate that Canadians may be more deceptive with their vacation posts. While 50 per cent of Canadian Millennials admitted to deceptive posts, only 36%of American Millennials claimed they did so, while 26% of Canadian GenXers said they post better-than-reality photos, only 15% of American GenXers claimed they did the same.

“This is the third year for our Winter Vacation Confidence Index, but the first time we have polled Canadians about their use of social media while travelling,” adds Keon. “Beyond capturing and sharing amazing travel memories, our smartphones are a valuable aid in a travel emergency.

“Our assistance centre in Kitchener, ON, receives approximately two million calls every year from Canadian travellers in need of medical or travel assistance,” Keon said. “Having your smartphone available while travelling makes it that much easier to reach us if an emergency unexpectedly arises. Travellers with smartphones can also benefit from our free TripWise app, which provides users with a number of helpful features including phone numbers for local emergency services, a GPS locator for nearby medical providers, flight status tracker, and more.”

The findings of the Canadian Winter Vacation Confidence Index are the result of an Ipsos poll conducted on behalf of Allianz Global Assistance Canada. A total of 2,005 surveys were completed among Canadian adults between October 23 and October 29, 2018. A survey of this size is considered accurate within plus-or-minus 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Allianz Global Assistance (Canada)

For 30 years, Allianz Global Assistance has supported travelling Canadians when they need it most with value-added travel insurance and assistance services. More than 800 employees support long-term partnerships with some of the best-known brands in the travel and financial services markets. Allianz Global Assistance also serves as an outsource provider for in-bound call centre services and claims administration for health insurers, property and casualty insurers and credit card companies. Allianz Global Assistance is a specialist brand of Allianz Partners for assistance and travel insurance, and is a registered business name of AZGA Service Canada Inc. and AZGA Insurance Agency Canada Ltd. For more information, visit www.allianz-assistance.ca.