At the NYS Tourism Excellence Summit, NYSTIA’s Bob Provost highlighted an eye-opening stat: New Yorkers leave up to 40 million days of paid time off (PTO) unused each year¹! Even more—an estimated 12 million of these days, worth over $3 billion² in PTO benefits, expire annually. Imagine the impact if New Yorkers used this time to travel, rejuvenate, and explore New York State!
Summit attendees gave an enthusiastic 'thumbs up' to develop an initiative to address this opportunity.

Help turn unused paid time off (PTO) into increased holiday travel in New York State!

Below are the tools for PHASE 1 of the initiative -
a grassroots social media to be conducted in November and December of 2024.

The goal of this campaign is communicate and advocate for the following points:

• URGENCY: Now is the time for employed New Yorkers to take stock any unused paid time off (PTO) they have remaining in 2024.
• BENEFIT: Using PTO to travel and spend time with family and friends has a widespread beneficial impact on employee health, wellness and life satisfaction as well as workforce productivity, retention and morale.
• OPPORTUNITY: Employed New Yorkers can conveniently use their remaining PTO days to enjoy seasonal events and experiences in nearby New York State destinations!

BONUS: ENORMOUS upside economic potential locked up in New Yorkers' unused PTO³:

1. Stats on unused PTO taken from a 2018 US Travel study sourced to Tourism Economics.
2. Economic value extrapolated from 1st quarter 2024 NYS Department of Labor statistics for mean and median daily wages. 
3. Economic value of PTO as instate travel extrapolated from a variety of sources and set at $157 per day, including meals, local travel, retail spending, fees and admissions and potential overnight lodging along with associated local and state taxes. NOTE: This estimate is considered conservative, as it assumes travel expenditures for a single individual and makes no assumption about co-traveling friends and family.

Sources