Starbucks Is A Teenage Dream, Survey Says

In a survey of thousands of American teens, Starbucks was the most preferred restaurant chain.

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Starbucks may have started decades ago as a premium cafe for Seattle yuppies, but the coffee chain — which now has more than 12,000 U.S. outlets — has become a favorite stop for America's teenage consumers too.

In its latest survey, "Taking Stock With Teens," investment bank Piper Jaffray found more teens chose Starbucks as their favorite restaurant than McDonald's, even though the Golden Arches remains the country's largest chain by sales.

The chain's popularity with young consumers is poised to stay strong: A report by Goldman Sachs also said Starbucks was well-positioned to benefit from this new wave of millennial parents who "would not feel guilty/embarrassed to feed to their kids" there.

Piper Jaffray surveyed 9,400 teens with an average age of 16 for the report.

Starbucks was most popular among high-income teens, who come from a family with an average household income of $107,000.

Piper Jaffray

Burrito chain Chipotle, despite having just 1,900 stores, was the upper-income group of teens' second favorite restaurant. Chick-fil-A, an Atlanta-based chicken sandwich chain which only recently started expanding its presence in the Northeast, came in third.

Burger giant McDonald's ranked fourth, followed by Panera.

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30% Of Americans Considering A Holiday In Cuba, Survey Says

Interest in visiting the country has shot up since President Obama announced plans to re-establish relations in late 2014.

Ramon Espinosa / AP

If survey responses are anything to go by, one of the first beneficiaries of a re-established diplomatic relationship between the U.S. and Cuba will be the country's tourism industry. Thirty percent of Americans are planning or would consider a holiday to Cuba within the next two years, according to a new survey.

Among Latino Americans, the number reaches 40%, said the survey, which was conducted by YouGov and polled about 1,100 Americans. The study was paid for by Airbnb, which began offering rentals in Cuba in March and says it already has more than 1,000 listings there.

For now, tourism to Cuba is still a tricky proposition for Americans, although less so than at any time in recent decades. In the past, travelers had to apply for a special license to visit the country, and licenses were only granted for limited purposes—things like family visits; government, academic, or NGO work; journalism; or sporting competitions. Tourism was not one of the permitted categories.

Ramon Espinosa / AP

After changes announced by President Obama last December, people traveling for those same limited set of reasons no longer need to apply for a license, but tourism is still not a permitted category. American credit and debit cards were also cleared to work in Cuba, but many other restrictions remain in place, and free movement between the two countries is still some time away.

Competing bills have been introduced in Congress, with one seeking to eliminate restrictions on tourism and another seeking to create new barriers.

If the country is opened to tourism, the survey suggests there are plenty of travelers ready to prioritize it as one of their next destinations. Of those who said they were considering a trip to Cuba, 65% said they would change their existing travel plans to include the country.

Kay Kuehne, Airbnb's regional director for Latin America, said in a statement that the Cuba could become one the company's biggest Latin American markets. "This research shows that more and more Americans are starting to factor Cuba into their future travel plans," she said.

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