Come Away with Me

Stating the obvious, who you travel with matters – a lot…. like there are certain people I would be willing to go away with for a long, fun-filled weekend in Mexico but I couldn’t possibly handle on a two-week trip to experience the culture and countryside of France (and vice versa). In an ideal world,

• Almost 3 in 4 Americans would choose to travel with their spouse or significant other.
• About 4 in 10 would choose to go away with their kids.
• About 4 in 10 would choose to travel with friends.
• About 1 in 5 would choose to travel with their own parents, while less than 1 in 20 would choose to go away with their in-laws (no surprise here).
• Approximately 1 in 20 would choose to travel with strangers or on their own.

Interestingly, 7% of married couples say they would prefer to travel without their spouse; and 1% would rather travel with strangers. And wait, what’s that? Men are more likely to want to go away with their spouse or significant other than women are. Holy anti-stereotype.

Age impacts this paradigm too.

• Gen Y-ish adults (i.e., ages 18-29) are most likely to want to take a vacation with friends.
• Those ages 30-64 are most likely to want to travel with their immediate family (i.e., their spouse/significant other and their kids), probably because they are more likely to have a partner and kids to begin with.
• The youngest and the oldest cohorts (18-29 and 65+) are most likely to want to travel solo, though I am guessing for different reasons.

Who would you take on your ideal/pretty good vacation? Would they choose to take you?

Relaxation Nation

Our lives are filled with many stresses – our client needs a report by EOD; our car needs a new battery; our kids need to get to soccer practice; and our back needs some pain relief (almost all the time).

So when we take a vacation, most of the time we just want to sit back, relax and enjoy ourselves. Going away (pun intended), our top priorities in planning a leisure trip are: fun and relaxation, both of which are nearly 5 times more important considerations than anything else like adventure, knowledge, or culture.

Even romance (whether you are married or single) comes up a whopping fifth or sixth as a priority when planning a vacation.

When we travel, we would prefer to:

• Do activities we are comfortable with (57%), rather than take risks
• Stick with the people we came with (57%), rather than socialize with others
• Lay low and relax (56%), rather than be active

And in case you need more proof that we are (for the most part) not a thrill-seeking country, in order of preference, the most desirable destinations (rated as the percentage who said “ideal” minus the percentage who said “no way”) of the following are:

Most Desirable Destinations

Clearly fun and relaxation is way at the top of this list, while adventure appears much lower down. Following stereotype, men and younger adults are slightly more likely to seek out adventure, but not by much, as the emphasis even for these groups remains on fun and relaxation. And, relaxation really takes off as the #1 consideration, once adults hit age 40 or more.

How would you rate the destinations above? Where did you go on your last vacation – and why? Have you ever gone anywhere that you later regretted, or conversely, wished you traveled somewhere but stopped yourself for one reason or another?

Aussie Bound

Americans say they are willing to spend a median amount of $1,000 on a leisure trip. But let’s imagine for a minute that you could travel anywhere in the world with all expenses paid (but you had to leave the United States), where would you choose to go?

Remember – you can go anywhere…

IF you could travel anywhere in the world OUTSIDE THE U.S. with all expenses paid, where would you go?

Well, the winning destination (according to Americans) is Australia, with Italy as first runner-up, and they are #1 and #2 by a good margin, with Italy’s Western European pals (England, Ireland and France) rounding out the top 5. In fact, Japan is the only Asian country to crack the top 10, and there are exactly zero African, Eastern European and Middle-Eastern countries represented.

Of note, if all expenses are paid for,

• About 1 in 10 Americans say they would still refuse to leave the United States to visit another country, while
• About 1 in 3 Americans say they would go absolutely anywhere, you name it.

When thinking about traveling around the world for a full year (again with all expenses paid and no consequences to work), more than 9 in 10 Americans say they would do it if they:

• Could choose their travel companions at their discretion (47%)
• Could go only with their immediate family (45%)
• Could travel with only one person of their choice (39%)
• Had to go alone (13%)

It seems like an amazing opportunity, and I like to believe me that I am a live-life-to-the-fullest kind of guy. But putting the financial constraints aside, a sabbatical from my life for an entire year seems nearly impossible to comprehend, especially if I had to go solo.

And the decision appears to be more than logistical for many Americans, perhaps emotional or psychological. Seniors (who likely have the fewest demands on their time, family constraints and work commitments) are by far the least likely to say yes.

We baby boomers claim to be greater risk-takers than the generation before us. So how do you think our cohort would handle this opportunity once we cross the senior age-threshold? And what about you… what would you personally choose right now in your life?

What Happens on Facebook Doesn’t Always Stay in Facebook

Last I heard, my wife earned a status of “limited access” to my youngest daughter’s Facebook profile. My understanding is that full-access privileges were revoked sometime last year. I’m not exactly sure what prompted the punitive measures, but I suspect comments about revealing clothes, unsavory looking characters, and/or evidence of activities that might be frowned upon by local authorities could have been the cause.

I suppose I agree with my wife’s concerns. On the other hand, I tend not to scrutinize my daughter’s Facebook wall too closely. It’s not that I don’t care about what my daughter’s up to, but rather I accept the fact that not knowing is probably better for my health. Ignorance is bliss. Or is it?

My daughter is poised to graduate college at the end of next year and is planning to embark on a life in the real world. She needs to be mindful that the presence and accessibility of compromising information on Facebook could keep her from getting the job she wants. The fact that the more provocative material is “private” offers little comfort as an increasing number of employers have been asking job candidates to hand over social media passwords. In fact, momentum is growing in several states to curtail these intrusions, with Maryland being poised to pass the first law prohibiting such requests. Read more: http://tiny.cc/0fv2cw

Should Employers Have the Right to Ask for Passwords From Job Candidates?

Personally, I am astonished by the hubris exhibited by employers who feel that asking for access to private personal information is okay. I also began to wonder if it’s just me or whether other people feel the same way. Therefore, we queried 1,508 people nationwide about their attitudes regarding the rights of employers to ask for passwords from job applicants. The overall results were what I expected – a large majority (72%) feel that employers shouldn’t have that right. What I didn’t expect, however, was just how much attitudes would differ between older and younger people. While more than four-fifths (82%) of respondents aged 50 – 64 disagree that employers should have password access, only 54% of those aged 18 – 29 feel the same way.

All I can figure is the younger set who were nurtured on Facebook and My Space are accustomed to having the details of their private lives out there for everyone to see and giving employers permission is simply not that big a deal. Or perhaps there is just a greater level of naivety about how the details of one’s private life may be fair game to deny someone employment. Maybe we will do a follow-up study to check my hypotheses. It also will be interesting to track this issue over time to see whether the “que sera sera” attitude of younger people will change as they grow older.

It’s Better to Give Than To Receive – Maybe

At the height of Powerball-mania a few weeks back, my wife came home with two tickets. Conservative by nature, she’s not one to spend money on long-shots, but the thought of a quarter-million dollars and a life in the lap of luxury was enough for her to plunk down a couple of bucks at the local gas station. Somewhat sheepishly she admitted she intended to buy one ticket for us and another for a co-worker as a birthday present, but the thought of giving away a winning ticket was too depressing (she still bought her co-worker an instant game scratch-off ticket). I assured her had she given the co-worker a winning Powerball ticket, I was certain she would have gotten something back in return…at least a million dollars. I then began to wonder, “What would the average person do?” and “What would the average person think someone else would do?”

So we asked 750 Americans, 18 and older, how much they would likely give back to someone who bought them a winning lottery ticket worth $250 million as a gift. Since we were curious whether people categorize themselves as being more or less generous than other people, we decided to ask a different but comparable 750 people how much somebody else would likely give to the person who bought them a winning lottery ticket worth the same amount.

How Much of a Gift Would You Give Back to Someone who bought YOU a winning lottery ticket worth $250 million?

First things first. People both think of themselves and other people as relatively generous, just not quite to the same degree: 63% of people surveyed say they, themselves, would give back a million dollars or more. However, our respondents are less optimistic about the generosity of other people: only 52% say other people would give back a million dollars or more. When examining the flip side, only about 3% of respondents say they, themselves, would give nothing back to the ticket buyer, whereas 13% believe other people would actually stiff the person who made them rich.

I suspect that when push comes to shove and the money is ours to do as we please, the decision on how much to give back wouldn’t be an easy one. We would just have to cross that bridge when get there. Or as my grandmother used to say “from your mouth to God’s ears”.