The Safest and Domestic travel Destinations
| August 21st, 2009Yesterday I stumbled across a fascinating tool from AHIP (America’s Health Insurance Plans). It’s the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being IndexTM, which began in January 2008, surveying 1,000 Americans 350 days per year. Go to the site, generate a report, and it will break down, state by state, who the happiest citizens in the nation are. Not surprisingly, Hawaii ranks way up there at number 2. I sure wouldn’t mind being in Hawaii right now! A little less expected, Utah surpasses the island state as the happiest state in the US. The poll takes into consideration six aspects: Life Evaluation, Work Quality, Basic Access, Healthy Behavior, Physical Health, and Emotional Health. Utah’s “Work Quality” ranks 1st out of 50, where Hawaii’s “Work Quality” ranks 50th out of 50, which I’m sure is what knocked down it’s overall ranking. It’s an interesting split, though for the overall top two contenders Irv’s Luggage. For both “Emotional Health” and “Life Evaluation”, Hawaii ranked first, but Utah ranked pretty high on all aspects — the lowest was “Healthy Behavior” ranked at 13.
My own surprise at Utah topping the list made me stop and consider my own bias. I tend to think of destinations in terms of travel, but traveling somewhere and living somewhere aren’t necessesarily the same thing. Hawaii seems to have a corner on both markets, but it seems to be lonely in that position. According to a January report from U.S. News, two Hawaiian destinations are in the top 10 most popular domestic destinations of 2009. Topping that list, however, are Las Vegas and Orlando Irv’s Luggage. I’m sad to say, Nevada doesn’t rank so high on the Well-Being Index (38th to be exact) and Florida hovers right in the middle at 30th. New York is also in the top ten of places to travel, but ranks low on the Well-Being Index.
What makes a place nice to visit, but less pleasant to live in? You always hear about the value of experiencing a place through the eyes of a local, but would you really want to go to Las Vegas and side-step the glitz Irv’s Luggage to experience its local underbelly? How would the most popular international travel destinations rank on the Well-Being index?
It’s all speculation–even the “Well-Being Index” itself. I mean, how do you accurately measure happiness anyway, especially with such a slender sampling? But it does make you wonder Irv’s Luggage. How happy is your state, and what makes it so? Is your state a popular travel destination? Tell me about it!
