Tom
I've ALWAYS had more then mandated here, and I have friends who have that plus work 80 or 90% (so another half day or two/week).
What I mean to say is that in the States, when I ask my coworkers about their vacation plans and what they want to do during the summer I mostly get blank looks as if they never thought about it. In Europe, almost everyone I asked the same question would reply with some plan, destination or family event they are looking forward to.
To illustrate this, look at the shopping streets in Germany and you'll always see a ReiseBuro near by with ads and often customers inside. In the States I haven't seen them and know of only 1 in San Francisco (I'm sure there are more). Granted this could have something to do with people in the States are more willing to go online and buy packages.
There is some truth here, American work custom is not generally to take more than a week off from work at a time. And we have less vacation time, so yeah, a lot of truth here. Europe is some what unique in this aspect though. Nobody works harder than the Asians.
We used to have Travel Agencies, but these have been substantially reduced as most Americans would prefer to buy online (or can find equal deals online themselves). I am actually surprised Reiseburos remain prevalent and that my Swiss friends actually still use them.
Though the whole fulfillment thing sounds backwards to me. I don't know Europeans who talk about being fulfilled by their jobs.
Most Americans I know would prefer more vacation, however, there is a lot of competition here for skills. And if they can't find help in America, they will locate that job somewhere else. There is little protection from the ugliness of the market.
Then perhaps your conclusion should have been 'my coworkers at this one company I worked' not 'Americans'. Yes? Perhaps even 'my coworkers at this new company where we were desperately trying to get a new product to market by a certain date'. Two points then: a) context of information means everything. b) don't extrapolate outside of your data range
See, now, if you'd actually investigated this and asked people you'd have realized that these days people are much less interested in paying a travel agent to do such work for them. They aren't interested in packaged vacations. They want to customize their vacations to their interests and their families interests. No one needs a travel agent to book a flight and a hotel. No Brit, American, or Aussie/Kiwi that I know here uses a travel agent either. They're like the dinosaurs of the travel industry.
The reason I stopped using travel agencies is a different one.
If somebody can string together a package to suit my specifications then I would use that service, even if it costs marginally more than doing it myself because comparing stuff online can be quite tiresome and there is a certain luxury in having a single set of terms and conditions so if I need to cancel I only need to tell one person rather than 57. And online vendors can be very difficult to deal with when you want a refund or a rebooking.
The reason I stopped using travel agents is not because I can do it myself but because so many travel agencies are just so incompetent. Often the person you deal with doesn't actually know more than you do but only has the advanatge of having a computer terminal on their desk (combined with the disadvantage of not being able to use it). And if I want something slightly out of the ordinary (and the difficult stuff is what travel agents are there for right?) they say it can't be done or find a very complicated way to do it. The only people who can still afford to be screw*d with lousy service and high prices are corporate customers.
The travel agency that books my work travel is really a case in hand. For example I was in the Frankfurt area once for private reasons on Sunday, and on Monday I had a business trip to Houston. So I said, can't they book me a flight from Frankfurt rather than Zürich to save me having to travel to Zürich. They booked me a train from Frankfurt to Zürich and then a flight back to Frankfurt to catch the main flight to Houson and no amount of arguing would bring them to change that.
I wouldn't agree with the premise that Americans don't go for packages as much as europeans do. The Americans invented Disneyworld after all. They just book those packages online rather than with the travel agent.
You have a valid point there for that particular case, yes. If you're not going to Disneyland, though, I think a lot of people tend to arrange their own flights and hotels and do activities on-the-spot, possibly arranged through a hotel or not. If you're an active sort, knowing you want to, say, sail board on a particular day is hard to judge. It's better to make that decision while there.
Historically, Americans used travel agencies a lot more since travel agents were able to get better deals and had access to the data bases of the vendors. With he advent of widespread online sources for your average consumer, and direct buys from vendors, the airlines and everyone else realized they didn't need to pay travel agents any kind of commission, they just had to offer the best prices and people would buy from them. Travel agencies still do exist, but their bread and butter is mostly servicing corporate and government accounts (unless you are talking the small independent travel agencies that you see in shopping centers)
Sad, but true. I can't remember the last time I used a travel agency (I think that it was a last minute "cheapo" package to The Dominican Republic). I can do better (and faster) and often cheaper myself (it never ceases to amaze me that travel agents here charge "per-person per-night" for hotel rooms, when the hotels themselves charge "per-room per-night", the travel agent effectively adding on a huge surcharge). Having done an awful lot of travelling in my career I now know exactly what I want when I go on holiday (even down to seat allocation in the aircraft) and I have yet to find a travel agent that can provide me with that....
Back on topic, one (of the many reasons) I have never even remotely considered working in the US (even though my skill set is in high demand) is the US approach to holidays (a.k.a. "vacation"). I quite frankly would find having to work without being able to enjoy a full two or three week holiday to fully recharge my batteries during the year, to be unbearable.
For me, the twice a year 2week/3week holidays I enjoy more than compensate for not having 24/7 shopping and (somewhat) lower prices on the necessities of life.