An overwhelming number of Taiwanese ranked travel or leisure activities during the Lunar New Year and other holidays as the best reward for hard work, a survey by Allianz Taiwan Life Insurance Co (安聯人壽) said yesterday.
In the quarterly survey, which has 7,412 effective samples, nearly 60 percent of the respondents expressed their wish to go on a trip every three months.
“Ideally, people would like to make 4.2 trips a year, but the actual number approximates 2.6,” Isaac Chen (陳俊宏), vice president of the company’s market management, told a news conference.
Chen said 50 percent cited busy schedules as the reason for failing to take enough vacations, while an extra 28 percent pinned the blame on monetary constraints.
Among vacationers, 66 percent relied on their salary to fund travel, while 33 percent paid for travel with investment returns, the survey said, adding that the remaining respondents used year-end bonuses.
Julie Chang (張珠梨), head of the company’s investment department, said the figures showed that the ability to pay for travel was a big challenge for Taiwanese salaried workers. She advised people to adopt more effective wealth allocation strategies to fulfill their travel plans.
Allianz Life president and CEO Chris James said that with an aging society, planning for retirement has become more important than ever.
“It is hard to juggle all our priorities at once, as other concerns, such as children’s education, need to be managed as well,” he said.
James said Allianz Life had no intention of pulling out of Taiwan, unlike a few of its foreign peers.
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