Better at being human?! Okay, I say that a bit tongue-in-cheek ... I think. After a trip to Japan, Jim Gaffigan said it well in one of his skits. It takes you less than a day in Tokyo to realize that the basic fiber of living is in many ways more elevated than what you are used to. Running a bit late, my friends and I ran right up to the door of a bus, and the driver sighed. Only then did we notice a marker some TEN feet away, behind which a group of people had already organized themselves into a line and were patiently excusing our ignorance. At the subway we noticed carriages for only women during designated "rush hours" for their greater comfort 😀. And yes, the toilets do make you feel like your country you thought was so developed all your life has actually been (and still is) in the stone age—we're not talking about 4K, AI or rocket science here — just t oilets! Why haven't we perfected the toilet yet? They didn't stop at the toilet, lol. Japan's techno...
This passage from the children's book Oh the Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss, emboldens the joy of adventure and the journey to travel there. The story speaks of a most dreadful place called The Waiting Place where many are stuck in familiarity, hopelessly waiting for something new that may never come. Whereas you, the protagonist, are encouraged to escape the Waiting Place to oh the places you'll go.
Why those in the Waiting Place refuse to do the same is up to interpretation. Maybe it's ignorance. Maybe it's circumstance. Maybe they're just afraid to go somewhere new.
Not all paths to adventure need involve physical travel to a new place, yet many are afraid to do just that.
Consider these startling figures:
27 percent of Americans have never traveled outside of the United States, not even once in their entire lifetimes - Pew Research
Only 25 percent of Americans have been to at least 5 other countries in their lives. By comparison, 88 percent of Swedes have done so - Pew Research
Nearly half of all Americans have either never traveled outside of the United States or have traveled to just one foreign country - Pew Research
Only 49 percent of Black Americans have ever traveled outside of the United States in comparison with 75 percent of White Americans and 73 percent of Hispanic Americans - Pew Research
87% of Americans preferred traveling domestically over going abroad in 2022 - Pacaso Blog
Americans are less likely to travel internationally as they get older - Pacaso Blog
59 percent of American travelers do not travel internationally at least once a year - Expedia
Even the majority of American travelers with higher incomes do not travel internationally at least once a year - Expedia
Overwhelmingly, the majority of those polled would like to book a cruise as their next vacation - Expedia
Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines traveling as going to different places instead of staying in one place, and Collins Dictionary defines it as the activity of moving or journeying from one place to another, esp to places far from home. At what point then, does going to the same places over and over again in or not too far from one's own home country, drinking the same drinks, eating the same food, with the same kinds of people, stop qualifying as really traveling? When is it simply vacationing in Florida? Could it be that these non-travelers, despite their summer attempts to escape, never truly leave the Waiting Place?
Regardless, the fear of that which really is travel is not quite free.
Todd B. Kashdan, a professor of psychology at George Mason, reported in the Harvard Business Review a study of 485 American adults. The results showed that those who visited more countries or connected more with the local culture were more tolerant, had a better attitude in regards to their own discomfort and were more confident in their ability to handle new and challenging situations. They also were better at not judging others based on age, sex or race and were more discerning when evaluating if others' actions definitely reflected their real personality or more so just the influential circumstances of their environment.
Dr. Kashdan then mentions the similar results of a study of 197 Chinese adults:
"People who traveled to more countries developed a greater tolerance and trust of strangers, which altered their attitudes toward not only strangers but also colleagues and friends back home. They became more appreciative of people with new knowledge, philosophies, and skills."
An article in National Geographic got in on the action, reporting:
"Other research suggests that the act of adapting to foreign cultures may also facilitate creativity."
The actual study itself clarified that only the participants who could recall "a functional multicultural learning experience" and who had previously lived in another country showed enhanced creativity. I find this clarification extremely interesting, as it can inspire to not simply go on a vacation in another country but to really get to know the local culture by whatever means possible.
Finally, there are two studies published in Sage Journals that comment on the phenomenal value of simply having a vacation planned and waiting for that vacation.
David Gilbert and Junaida Abdullah of the Surrey European Management School in the UK describe the results of their study:
"It appears that those who are waiting to go on a holiday are much happier with their life as a whole, experience less negative or unpleasant feelings and thus enjoy an overall net positive effect or pleasant feelings. The holiday-taking group are also happier with their family, economic situation and health domains compared to the non-holiday-taking group."
And Amit Kumar and Thomas Gilovich from Cornell University do the same:
"We argue that waiting for experiences tends to be more positive than waiting for possessions. Four studies demonstrate that people derive more happiness from the anticipation of experiential purchases and that waiting for an experience tends to be more pleasurable and exciting than waiting to receive a material good."
The fact that there are scientific studies published by one of the leading providers of academic journals in the world suggesting that those who plan for and go on vacations may be happier with their life as a whole in comparison with those who don't is quite simply, astonishing.
Clearly, to say there are benefits to traveling, or rather costs to not traveling, is an understatement. That being said, some of these statistics, surveys and studies have been alluding to a very intriguing detail that must be plainly spotlighted in this discussion.
An argument could be made that even when many tourists do travel internationally, they still are stuck in the Waiting Place. Awake Magazine wrote:
"According to reports, a majority of travelers apparently fail to take a serious interest in the countries that they visit or in the people there."
This harmonizes with another aspect of Expedia's report, which stated that of the 1000 American travelers polled:
"Certain factors, such as level of income, education, and employment didn’t appear to affect the fact that the majority of people [who travel internationally] travel for [just] one week."
It is commendable that some do decide to travel internationally from time to time. Nevertheless, it is evident that many do not make it a goal to immerse themselves in the real culture of a totally different community, which is extremely hard if not impossible to do in just one week.
From personal experience of planning vacations, I can attest to how difficult it is to interest tourists from first world countries to visit totally different places such as South Korea or Japan, whereas a cruise or all-inclusive beach vacation where you barely leave the boat or never leave the resort is often very appealing.
Not to be missed is that Expedia's report highlights that even the richer tourists preferred to travel internationally for just one week.
This seems to indicate that money is not the main reason tourists don't take the time to really get to know another's culture on vacation. Perhaps it is a slave-like fear of missing more than a week of secular work back home or maybe just a lack of real interest in others.
This lack of interest in others' cultures while vacationing has turned into complete disrespect for some.
On June 23, 2023 an English tourist was filmed carving his name and his girlfriend's name in the nearly 2000 year old Roman Colosseum. The Los Angeles Times reported that Gennaro Sangiuliano, Culture Minister of Italy, strongly desired that the tourist be found “and punished according to our laws”. According to the laws, that tourist faces 15,000 dollars in fines and up to 5 years in prison.
USA Today reported that the tourist claimed ignorance of the importance of one of the most famous pieces of architecture in the world stating: “I admit with deepest embarrassment that it was only after what regrettably happened that I learned of the antiquity of the monument.”
His lawyer added, “The boy is the prototype of the foreigner who frivolously believes that anything is allowed in Italy, even the type of act which in their own countries would be severely punished."
AP News mentioned that this is not the first time a tourist has carved something into the Colosseum. In 2014 a tourist from Russia received a 25,000 dollar fine and a 4 year suspended jail sentence, and in 2015, two tourists from the United States of America were cited for the same thing.
Surely if we do travel, and by all accounts we should if we can, a priority should be to respect and learn from others' culture and history.
Mark Twain is his 1867 book The Innocents Abroad wrote:
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”
Personally, I hadn't left the United States of America for the first time until I was 25 years old. The Pimentas neighborhood of Guarulhos, São Paulo, in Brazil, was my first taste of the great beyond. I was sick for a month, had a close call near a favela and experienced Brazil's hottest summer in 40 years. But that is where I first saw black and white people together as family and the general society saw the difference as hair color. That was where I first realized how dumb it is football is called football in America and how truly king soccer is to the rest of the human race. That was where I first had the real açaÃ. I left the U.S. ignorant and self-assured, and I left Brazil humbled and wanting more.
This life is hard, and it is a privilege to be able to travel the world, a privilege simply not permitted to all in today's discriminatory, economic society. There is, therefore, a purposeful difference between the inability to travel and the fear of travel, the latter at best being an uninformed choice, at worst a ruinous investment. I am of the opinion that...
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