Does travel change us for the better?

SIRACUSA, SICILY—When I was 17 years old, I had a premonition I would die at noon the next Friday. Instead, at that exact moment, I won a trip to Italy. I had never travelled far: my world was small, parochial, and insular. It revolved around a 10-kilometre radius in central to west end Montreal. Then my brother and I got on a plane in June of 1970, and spent time in a dozen countries in two months. Where finding my way around Montreal had once been a challenge, I was now navigating across a continent. At each border we had to show a passport, deal with a new currency, a new language, and learn about these countries. I came back a different person: I had a curiosity in international issues, politics, and history, and I sought to learn more languages. These thoughts come back to me 54 years later, in Italy once again. The late Anthony Bourdain said: "Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world, you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life—and travel—leaves marks on you." Travel is the world's largest industry, at more than $10-trillion, so it’s bound to have an impact on our environment, our economies, our societies, and our lives. Is travel good for our destinations? In Palermo, Sicily, Andrew Caddell saw graffiti saying, ‘Tourism kills the city.’ Photograph courtesy of Andrew Caddell Even in my little village of Kamouraska, Que., we spend $50,000 annually to provide amenities to tourists. The former mayor, Gilles Michaud, made an insightful comment recently: "We generously loan our village to the tourists for a few months, and then get it back the rest of the year." However, in a recent article in the New Yorker, philosopher Agnes Callard contended travel has no impact: "The traveller departs confident she will come back with the same basic interests, political beliefs, and living arrangements. Travel is a boomerang. It drops you right where you started." I don't believe that; like anything, you get out of an experience what you put into it. But is travel good for our destinations? In Palermo last week, I saw graffiti saying, "Tourism kills the city." With that in mind, I turned to two experts on the subject, my son Jack and his partner Jill. They have been travelling the world since they left Montreal in September. Since then, they have crossed North America, gone from Japan to India, and now Italy, with several countries between. They will travel further in Europe and return in March. I asked them what they have learned. One truism Jill offered: "People are different, but everywhere they are essentially the same." For that reason, they spent a few weeks in each country, "to understand it more." They have seen how dependency on tourism affects workers, especially in the developing world. The pandemic had a huge impact on tourism, and now the industry is catching up. They trained with a diving instructor in the Philippines who was obliged to do an exhausting three dives a day, seven days a week, and met people in Thailand and Cambodia working day after day. Jack said they sought to "reduce our footprint, support local businesses, and respect each distinct culture: just because you are on vacation, you are not in a theme park." They learned enough of the local language to get by, and showed respect for cultural norms and etiquette. In this era of social media trends, Jill pointed out the problems for businesses: an out-of-the-way restaurant can become overcrowded and lose its cachet overnight. When I won my trip in 1970, the value of our airplane tickets was equal to my father's annual salary. Today, travel is less exclusive, but still very expensive: Jack and Jill saved three years for this trip. It is also a window that may close, if the world gets more dangerous. I had friends who drove from England to Iran, then through Afghanistan to India in the 1970s. That would be impossible today. On that note, I asked them how they perceive the world, having seen so much of it. They were frustrated at the attitudes of some of their fellow travellers. And while they appreciated meeting so many people who were different from them, they are skeptical about the political leadership of our planet. That, to me, is cause for concern. Andrew Caddell is retired from Global Affairs Canada, where he was a senior policy adviser. He previously worked as an adviser to Liberal governments. He is a town councillor in Kamouraska, Que. He can be reached at pipson52@hotmail.com. The Hill Times

Does travel change us for the better?

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Does travel change us for the better?

Travel is the world's largest industry, and bound to have an impact on our environment, our economies, our societies, and our lives.

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