While sharing photos of food, pets, vacations and everything in between is the norm today, travelers are not as likely to engage in person, according to a recent survey conducted by The GO Group, an international ground transportation and travel service provider.
Travelers were asked how likely they were to converse with their seatmate. Of the more than 200 respondents, just five percent said they always speak to their seatmates and nine percent responded “frequently.” The most common answer, at 44 percent, was “sometimes” while 30 percent said rarely and eight percent said “never.” Just five percent said they chat with their neighbor only if the other person initiates conversation.
These results vary compared with a similar survey conducted by the company in 2015, in which 25 percent said they speak with their seatmates “frequently” and almost 20 percent said they do so if the conversation was started by their neighbor.
Women are slightly chattier than men, with six percent responding “always,” compared with men at four percent; these results were the same in both the 2019 and 2015 surveys.
Survey participants also were asked if they have ever formed an ongoing relationship with someone they met on a plane. Eight percent of respondents replied “yes;” 87 percent responded “no” and five percent “don’t recall.”
“With everyone’s use of mobile devices, laptops and in-flight programming on planes, people are less inclined to entertain themselves with one-on-one conversations while flying,” says John McCarthy, president of The GO Group.
