For people who cannot afford to visit family, explaining the absence can be as uncomfortable as the financial decision itself. Many are choosing an explanation that leaves money out of the conversation.
The cost of visiting family can be difficult to discuss with the people expecting you to arrive. Travel expenses are a private calculation, but declining an invitation is a family matter, especially when relatives have already made plans around being together. For some people, acknowledging that a journey is unaffordable means exposing financial circumstances they would prefer to keep private.
A Hint App survey of 7,126 adults across the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Latin America, and the European Union, all living at least two hours from close family, found that 41% were not traveling to see relatives for the holidays. Among those staying away, 63% said cost was part of their decision. Of that group, 58% had given their families a different explanation.
The preferred explanation was overwhelmingly professional. Among respondents concealing the financial reason, 71% blamed work, while 14% cited weather and 9% mentioned health. Another 6% gave other explanations. Across the full survey sample, approximately 15% of respondents were missing a family visit partly because of cost while allowing relatives to believe something else was responsible.
The preference for work is particularly revealing because professional obligations offer a familiar reason for declining personal commitments. A demanding schedule or an inability to take leave can make an absence seem unavoidable. Financial limitations are potentially more complicated to explain because relatives may interpret affordability differently, particularly when they believe a family gathering should take priority over other expenses.
Money can also invite a conversation that the person declining the visit never intended to have.
“A family can hear ‘I can't afford it’ as a problem they're being asked to solve, even when someone is simply explaining a decision,” said Kirill Liakh, Managing Director of Hint App. “An offer to pay for the journey may come from genuine affection, but accepting help can carry its own emotional weight. People want to remain close to their families while retaining some control over their financial lives. Those needs don't always fit comfortably into the same conversation.”
The survey also suggests that many people have already settled on how to communicate their absence. 76% of respondents who were not traveling had informed their families. Among those who offered an alternative explanation, 47% delivered it by text or message rather than by phone. Written communication can make it easier to deliver a decision without an immediate discussion, although the findings do not establish whether avoiding that discussion influenced respondents' choice of channel.
The distinction between affordability and willingness to visit is central to understanding these responses. Relatives may experience an absence as a reflection of how much the relationship matters, while the person staying away is making a decision within financial limits. The survey does not establish how families interpret these explanations, but it shows how frequently the financial reason remains undisclosed.
For families trying to understand why someone cannot come home, the explanation they receive may describe an obstacle that never existed. The actual cost of maintaining those family connections can remain invisible to the people who most want them preserved.
About Hint App:
Hint App is a symbolic, emotional insight platform with over 1.2 million users that combines ancient practices such as astrology, palmistry, and visual soulmate interpretations with modern technology, including artificial intelligence and NASA astronomical data, to deliver highly personalized reports based on a user’s exact birth details. Rather than offering predictions or quick fixes, Hint App serves as a reflective framework, helping individuals map emotional patterns, understand the deeper timing behind personal and relationship decisions, and reconnect with their inner clarity.
Hint App is a symbolic, emotional insight platform with over 1.2 million users that combines ancient practices such as astrology, palmistry, and visual soulmate interpretations with modern technology, including artificial intelligence and NASA astronomical data, to deliver highly personalized reports based on a user’s exact birth details. Rather than offering predictions or quick fixes, Hint App serves as a reflective framework, helping individuals map emotional patterns, understand the deeper timing behind personal and relationship decisions, and reconnect with their inner clarity.