Americans Experience Happiness When Traveling to New Destinations

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United Airlines reveals research showing 73% of Americans experience happiness when traveling to new destinations. The company partnered with cognitive scientist Dr. Laurie Santos to analyze the connection between happiness and vacation planning.

The research indicates that 68% of people need something to look forward to in January, with travel purchases providing twice the happiness boost compared to buying material goods.

The airline announced its largest-ever international expansion, adding eight new destinations including Ulaanbaatar, Kaohsiung, Nuuk, Palermo, Bilbao, Madeira Island, Faro, and Dakar.

Small Business Productivity Issues Differ From Country to Country

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The McKinsey Global Institute aggregated a richly granular data set of micro-, small-, and medium-size enterprises (MSMEs) and large companies across 12 broad sectors, 68 level-two sub-sectors, and more than 200 level-three sub-sectors for 16 countries that account for more than half of global GDP.

In these countries, MSMEs on average have only half the productivity of large companies, and less than that in emerging economies. Raising MSMEs to top-quartile levels relative to large companies represents value equivalent to 5 percent of GDP in advanced economies and 10 percent in emerging economies.

The visual presentations here summarize the findings for the 16 countries in McKinsey's research representing different income levels.