(TND) — Summer vacation season is here, and a lot of folks are willing to take on debt for their trips.

A new WalletHub survey found that nearly a quarter of Americans would skip a credit card payment before skipping a vacation.

And 40% said it’s worth going into debt for a good vacation.

WalletHub Founder and CEO Odysseas Papadimitriou said he was surprised to see so many people willing to throw their finances to the wind for travel.

“In my opinion, you go into debt for necessities, not for luxuries,” he said Friday.

This year is forecasted to see nearly 2.5 billion trips with over $1.1 trillion spent, according to the U.S. Travel Association.

But Papadimitriou said it’s a “red flag” for a household to pile up debt for a leisure trip.

WalletHub’s survey also found that more than a third of people still have credit card debt from their last vacation, and 65% think about post-vacation credit card bills while they’re still away from home having fun.

Papadimitriou said an island getaway might sound great, but it might not be if you spend your trip worrying about money or if you’re saddled with debt for months after your return.

Papadimitriou views traveling as a luxury, but he also believes Americans need to take time to relax and recharge.

But he said people can still have fun with a cheaper trip or a staycation.

“And with that frame of mind, then I think it will liberate so many people to be able to truly enjoy their time off,” Papadimitriou said.

And filtering vacation planning through a lens of what’s a necessity can be an important part of overall prudent household budgeting, he said.

“It's so important that people make that mental shift on vacations,” he said. “Because then I think it's going to propagate to hundreds of daily decisions that they make that can help them save money.”

Americans' household debt is steadily rising, hitting a new high of $17.69 trillion, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said this week.

And people are increasingly digging a hole of credit card debt.

Money Management International, one of the country's largest nonprofit credit counseling organizations, said the average unsecured debt of its clients has ballooned more than 30% from before the pandemic.

Inflation has been taking a toll on Americans, with consumer prices up 17% in the last three years.

And that’s being felt by WalletHub’s survey respondents.

Over half plan on spending less money this summer than last summer. And 68% said inflation will be affecting their travel plans.

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