It’s Your Dream Vacation, Your Pick of World Leaders

PITTSBURGH – Of those surveyed for PNC Bank about their dream vacation, nearly half picked President Obama as the world leader they most want to sit next to during a flight to their destination.

Overall, 44% chose Obama over Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, 18%, British Prime Minister David Cameron, 17%, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, both 15%. Fifteen world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, were listed in the multiple-choice question.

Among millennials, Obama was even more popular, 56%, with whom to converse during a long flight.

Other findings in the Harris Poll conducted in behalf of the PNC Premier Traveler Visa Signature card:

• 53% said they plan to take a vacation this summer. Some 60% will travel by car, in large measure because of lower gasoline prices, while 31% said they intend to fly. More than three in four, 76%, plan to drive at least 500 miles during their getaways. The vast majority, 91%, plans to stay overnight.
• Nearly half said their dream vacation is a cruise around the world.
• Just more than a quarter, 28%, would like to spend their vacation with Warren Buffett, chairman, president ad CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., and known as the “Oracle of Omaha.” Among millennials, however, tech geniuses such as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg, Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, Google co-founder Larry Page and Apple CEO Tim Cook were just as or nearly as popular.

Were money not a constraint, nearly half of the 2,105 respondents – 49% — would take a round-the-world cruise, 40% would visit the Seven Wonders of the World and 38% would travel to and spend their time on an isolated island in the South Pacific. Fifteen percent chose to sightsee somewhere in outer space.

How would the respondents occupy themselves on their vacations? Eight in 10 said they would take photographs and four in 10 said they would post their photos on social media. Among those ages 25 to 34, 55% would share their photos on social media while only a third of those 35 and older would do so.

The Harris Poll conducted the online survey, some of which was multiple choice, of 2,015 Americans 18 years of age and older between April 23 and May 3. “If this were a pure random sample,” Harris said, “the estimated theoretical margin of sampling error would be plus or minus two percentage points. The sampling error for data of smaller sub examples is higher and varies.”

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.