Britain is a nation of braggers when it comes to travel.
Its peak holiday season and time for a rash of social media posts with captions like Not a bad view from the office or Hows your Monday going?
Opening Facebook or Instagram always means being assailed with a welter of lush holiday pictures, featuring impossibly blue skies, elaborate cocktails and people in swimwear weirdly contorting themselves on the sand.
If youve been posting pictures because you want the people you went to school with or your ex to see you having an amazing time and feel a twinge of jealousy, youre not alone.
New research shows that 71% of Brits are posting holiday pictures on social media with the sole intention of making others jealous.
Were also bragging and outright lying about our holiday experiences, with 64% of people surveyed admitting to wildly exaggerating about how good their holiday was to impress their peers.
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45% of respondents confessed to over-editing pictures (using Photoshop or face filters rather than the standard Instagram filters) to make the holiday look more idyllic.
The research was conducted by cruise agent Bolsover Cruise Club, and also showed that 68% of people would unfollow people for irritating boasting about their holidays – even if theyd only done it once.
We seem to be torn between a wish to brag, to inspire jealousy in others and showcase how amazing our lives are, and then ready to cut others out when they do the same.
Perhaps a steady diet of similar posts from celebrities and influencers is creating the expectation that this is what cool, successful people do, whereas when we see our friends uploading exaggerated or boastful holiday posts in real life, it can be really grating.
Top 10 things people lie about on holiday:
- Standard of hotel
- Restaurants (quality of food)
- Holiday romance/flings
- Weather
- Alcohol consumed
- Nightlife
- Number of sightseeing spots visited
- Famous people seen
- Getting involved in the local culture
- Amount of money spent
Nicolas, 27, said: I told my friend at work Id been to Laos, and he immediately told me that it was too commercialised and that he usually goes to Maos – which was much more unspoilt.
It was only when I Googled it while planning my next trip abroad that I realised there was no such place! He had just been trying to one-up me.
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When people tell blatant untruths about their holidays, its probably because theyre not that satisfied by what actually happened.
No one wants to boast about getting a poorly tummy or having their bag stolen.
Also, if you saved up a lot of money for a holiday, its understandable to want to present it as amazing rather that just OK or worse, a disastrous waste of funds.
Its easy to feel jealous when youre stuck at home because you havent been able to get time off or you cant afford a holiday this time round, but remember that holiday braggers usually arent telling the whole truth.
And if you do lie about your holidays, prepare to get found out.
Jennifer, 34, told her work colleagues that her partner had proposed on a beach in Ibiza, surrounded by rose petals and candles.
In fact, he got down on one knee the weekend before in Blackpool. It was all fine, until his best man mentioned the Blackpool proposal in the wedding speech…
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