Why People Don’t Travel

Lately, I’ve been immersed in the excited flush of planning several different trips, both imminent and long-term.  I’ve been riding the high that comes from knowing that soon, I’ll be somewhere new, exotic, and exciting, on the verge discovering a new country and corner of the globe.  This feeling thrills me like no other.

As I’ve been making my plans, I’ve also been talking with friends about theirs.  Some of my traveler friends are off on extraordinary journeys of their own soon, inspiring me to consider adding new locales to my ever-expanding bucket list.

But not all my friends or family members are avid travelers.  Some barely travel at all.  And when I take a moment to pull myself away from the whirl of travel planning, writing, and reading the latest stories from the travel blogging community, I’m reminded that, in fact, this is life for the vast majority of people in the world.  Limited travel, if any at all.

Why is that?

I have a few thoughts on this, which have been crystalizing in my mind as I’ve considered this question.  Of course, we can start by eliminating the very obvious reasons people don’t travel: they’re flat broke, they’re ill or incapacitated, or they’ve recently landed in jail.  Not everyone can travel all the time, as much as they may want to do so. I get that.  And some people just have zero desire to explore the world. I absolutely don’t get that, but everyone is different, and that’s okay.  Not everyone needs to be a travel junkie.

But I know a lot of other people who fit into a different category.  They’re young, healthy, have time and enough money to get out and see the world…but they don’t.  Why not?

Here are a few of my thoughts on why people who can travel, and say they want to, end up never following through:

 

• They Want to Travel, But Only if They Can Do it in Luxury: I’ve written before about how many people seem to conflate travel and vacations, assuming that if they’re traveling they will be staying in luxurious surroundings, and if they can’t afford to do that, they should just stay home. Travel CAN be expensive, but it doesn’t have to be as expensive as people think.  You could probably spend a month in rural Vietnam for what a few days in a fancy Parisian hotel would cost you.  But a lot of people I know aren’t interested in leaving their house if they can’t go someplace nicer.  Their desire to travel and see the world seems to be inextricably linked to being able to partake in fancy meals and hotel suites.  Nothing wrong with that, if you can afford it.  But I think that’s where a lot of people get stuck: they have visions of themselves ensconced in luxury and when they are told they could have a great trip in a budget hotel or a hostel while taking buses, they’re suddenly not that excited about seeing the world anymore.  It’s a mismatch between the kind of travel they want and the kind they can actually afford, which causes them to throw in the towel on travel entirely.

• They Only Want to Go to Certain Places (Which Probably Cost A Lot): Who doesn’t dream of going to Italy? I love Italy. I completely understand why people who haven’t traveled a lot have it, or Paris or London, at the top of their wish lists. Those are amazing places with tons of history, culture, beauty, and amazing food.  Everyone should see them if at all possible.  But none of those places are all that cheap—they can be done on a budget, of course, but they’re not really ideal budget travel locations.  For the type of trip most people want to have (see above), Italy, France, and England require shelling out quite a bit of cash.  There are plenty of destinations to be seen for much, much less money—Southeast Asia and Central America, for example, could be seen over a few months in what many people would pay for a week or two in London.  But most people who aren’t die-hard travelers wouldn’t think of going to those places, and aren’t really that interested in seeing them.  They want London, Paris, or Italy.  And when they can’t find a way to finance that in the style they like, rather than checking out another much cheaper (and fascinating!) corner of the planet, they instead choose to stay home.  What a shame.

• They Want to Travel, But Only if It’s Easy: Travel requires a certain amount of work, especially when one is on a budget. I can recall flying eight hours to get to Copenhagen (not even all that challenging a destination), then having to find my way to the train station before dragging my suitcase to my hotel. At the train station, all the signs were in Danish, no one I met spoke any English (my guidebook led me astray here, and my two memorized words of Danish weren’t any help).  Everything worked out fine, but it wasn’t an ideal start to my trip, and I can imagine it would have frazzled a lot of people who aren’t used to navigating foreign cities on their own.  It’s not always easy to travel.  You have to be willing to put up with annoyances and inconveniences, and step out of your (English-speaking) comfort zone.  Not everyone is prepared to do that.

• They’re Waiting for the Stars to Align: I know a lot of people with travel dreams. They always have some place in mind they’d like to visit someday: Greece, Africa, Russia, France, Australia.  Some big, larger-than-life travel dream they’ve packed away for the day they’ll be able to do it because everything they need will magically come together. They’ll win the lottery; their spouse or friend will finally be ready to go; they’ll be through with this enormous project at work that keeps dragging on; the value of the dollar will rise; they’ll finally get around to taking that language class.  Someday, all the stars will align and then, and only then, will this trip happen.  I’m sorry, but this is no way to live. I’ve traveled to almost thirty countries on five continents and I did not manage this by waiting for the stars to align.  Just do it!  Save some money, buy a flight, secure the needed vacation time, buy a guidebook, and go.  Yes, even if you have to travel solo (which I think is another major reason people don’t travel—they only want to embark on a voyage if they have a travel companion).  Life is short. If you have the time and the money, or can find a way to get either, just go on your dream trip this year.  Waiting for the stars to align is rarely a successful strategy, in travel or in life.

               

 

• They Don’t Prioritize Travel: “I want to travel, but it’s expensive/I’m so busy/I’ll get to it once I buy a house/get a promotion/finish this chapter of the book I’m reading.” I’ve heard these statements a lot. In other words, people say they want to travel, but for one reason or another they’re just not making it a priority in their lives. The money that could have purchased a plane ticket to Istanbul instead gets spent on a new Ipad or a shopping spree at the mall or dinners out with friends.  This ties in closely with the stars aligning: people often wait for travel to happen to them, as if it were a gift that was going to be given out at Christmas instead of something you need to work towards and keep as a goal in your life.  The world isn’t going to come to you, and you’ll never get to it if you don’t put travel at or near the top of your priority list.

• They Think They Will Always Have Time to Travel “Someday”: Something that has always baffled me is people who say they want to travel, so they’ll do it after they retire. Really?  If you’re in your twenties or thirties, why would you postpone something you really want to do for another four decades or so?  Most jobs do provide vacation days—use them! That’s what they’re for!  And how do you know you’ll still be physically able to travel, or still have the desire to do so, when you’re in your seventies?  Personally I think it’s insane to delay your travel dreams that way, and it dims the likelihood that they will ever actually come true.  Maybe you can’t travel this month or next year, but please, if you want to travel, get out there and do it as soon as you can make it happen.  There are no guarantees in life, and we can’t always count on an endless stretch of time in the future to see the world. So don’t wait around.  Take control.  Do it now.

 

Any other thoughts on why people don’t travel, despite saying they want to? Share!