Holiday Equality : A French Case Study

Four in ten people in France cannot afford to leave their homes to go on vacation, a new study has found, an inequality that has persisted at the same level for the past 40 years. With poverty levels in France reaching new heights, the problem looks set to get worse.

Summer travel is on the horizon, but going away on holiday is out of reach for 40 percent of people in France who can’t afford to take a trip away from home, according to a June study from French association l’Observatoire des inégalités.

The study, which used data collected in January 2024, found that there was a correlation between people’s financial capacity for travel and their professional status, with 78 percent of senior executives able to take trips versus 47 percent of labourers.

“The higher you climb the social ladder, the more likely that you will be able to get away on holiday,” the study authors wrote.

The privileged network that comes with higher social status also plays a role.

“At the higher levels of the social ladder, people more often have access to free accommodation at holiday sites, such as second homes,” the authors added.

Critics say the inequality that exists in France is not a given.

“In northern countries such as Denmark, 80 percent of people go away on holiday. France could set that as an objective,” sociologist and author of "Quand le Tourisme s'éveillera" (When Tourism Wakes Up), Jean Viard told radio channel France inter.

Viard’s views were echoed in the l’Observatoire des inégalités study, which found that financial aid to help people take holiday trips was insufficient.

Experts say measures to enable more people to engage in holiday travel could reap benefits and boost equality, as it provides a rare opportunity for different social strata of the population to mix.

On holiday, “at the beach, at festivals and cultural sites, and through different activities, people keep to themselves less. Different social groups rub shoulders more than usual,” said Sandra Hoibian, director of Crédoc, a French centre for research into social and economic trends.

Supporting more people to take holidays and providing accessible pastimes would help “move the boundaries of social inequality”, she added.

- Author: Bahar MAKOOI, France 24