88% say holidaying with loved ones

You may not be able to buy happiness but you can buy a holiday abroad with your loved ones. A recent survey of almost 2,000 holidaymakers from Holiday Hypermarket has revealed 88% believe a holiday abroad with loved ones would bring them the most genuine happiness in comparison to material goods such as a new car or mobile phone.

Respondents were asked to consider their expected level of happiness immediately after making a purchase, and then asked how much happiness they would expect their purchase to still bring them after one month, one year and five years.

The purchase options included a holiday with loved ones (followed by the memories/photographs of their holiday), a new car, a whole new wardrobe of clothing, a new TV or a new mobile phone. Even after five years, a whopping 85% of respondents still felt the memories of a holiday spent with loved ones would bring them the most continued happiness, with the new car following way behind at only 10%.

Respondents were asked to remove monetary value from the equation in order to bypass a product’s worth having an impact on the happiness it may bring to you. Only 4.8% said a holiday abroad with loved ones would bring them no happiness at all, with the higher percentage of those being male.

Lisa Dixon, contact centre manager at Holiday Hypermarket said: “We live, breathe and love holidays so it’s great to know these experiences win over other materialistic items we can all admit to becoming a little too all-consumed with, however this finding actually doesn’t come as much of a shock to me. We hear first-hand about our customers amazing holiday experiences and get to relay our own time never fades those memories.”