Window seat or aisle seat?

• CWT sheds light on global preferences

Research by CWT shows that two-thirds of business travellers prefer window seats over aisle seats.

That rises to 71% in Asia Pacific, and falls to 59% in the Americas, with the Europeans in the middle at 65% window over aisle.

Globally, a narrow majority of business travellers would prefer to miss their flight rather than be separated from their luggage – with travellers from the Americas showing the strongest preference at 54%, European travellers at 52%, and travellers from Asia Pacific split down the middle.

When it comes to ground transportation, 54% of travellers still prefer traditional taxis over ridesharing services like Lyft or Uber. But there are strong regional differences. In Europe, a full 69% Europeans prefer taxis – almost exactly the reverse of American travellers, 63% of whom prefer rideshare services. Asia Pacific travellers are more evenly split, with 56% preferring taxis.

“These findings provide fascinating and sometimes counterintuitive insights into how global business travellers approach their journeys,” said CWT Executive VP and Chief Traveller Experience Officer Niklas Andreen. “We see significant differences between regions – for example, in booming Asia, people are more likely to want a window seat, whereas in markets like the US, the view is less of a draw.”

CWT’s research also shows that travellers are generally happy to share their travel preferences with both apps and travel industry staff – globally nine out of ten (89%) of travellers are ‘extremely’ or ‘somewhat’ willing to do so. That applies equally to business travel and leisure travel, suggesting that travellers make little distinction between the two, at least when it comes to sharing information on their personal preferences.

The data shows that European travellers are least willing to share data: 14% of Europeans are ‘not willing’ to share their preferences either with apps or people while traveling for business. That rises to 17% when traveling for leisure. Travellers from the Americas or Asia Pacific are much less likely to refuse to share their preferences, especially when traveling for leisure.

The survey was created by CWT and conducted by Artemis Strategy Group between 29 January and 9 February. Responses were collected from more than 2,700 business travellers who travelled for business four or more times in the previous 12 months. Respondents were from the Americas (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and the US), Europe (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the UK) and Asia Pacific (Australia, China, India, Japan, and Singapore).