September 27 is apparently World Tourism Day — so i’mma get in my soapbox for a min… or so.🙈
14ish years ago, I graduated with a BS in Tourism in the Philippines. The world was full of one promise — travel!
It was a tourism student’s battle cry and the answer to… everything.
Job? Travel!
World peace? Travel!
Economic development? Travel!
You hate yourself? Travel!
You love yourself? Travel!
Enlightenment? Travel!
Back then the words sustainability, equitability, ecotourism, while not new, seem to just be gaining traction — somehow they still feel that way today. 🙃
My school books talked about how the internet *might* revolutionize traveling and hospitality. Apps, socia media, über, airbnb, google maps/translate were unheard of.
What a different time, oh ghost of Christmas past!
2022, I got invited to guest teach (virtually) a tourism class in my old university. And boy, the things I learned. This new generation? You can say what you want about them but I’d be lying if they didn’t intimidate me. They reminded me of me (us) except raised to the nth level. It’s like seeing the evolution of species that Darwin talked about in realtime. They were like the human proof of compound interest.
Smart, sharp and tech-savvy, these students were vibrating with youthful energy. Like a rocket waiting to be launched. Or so I thought.
A few conversations in and most of them were worried, concerned, anxious — they were the “students of the covid lockdown.”
They mostly dismissed my praises of their technical skills and shared their big fear — that the virtual world has robbed them of the opportunity to practice their social/ interpersonal/communication skills.
As they sat there telling me how afraid they are of the future, I sat there thinking, maybe the future is going to be just fine after all.
Truth is, as I got older my perception and ideas of travel has changed…quiet a lot. It narrowed and expanded, tightened and loosened. It’s this continuous deconstruction and reconstruction — much like my own life.
And sure I (we) could stay in this rabbit hole of concepts… about what travel is and what it should be. Travel as the hero: how it broadens the mind and soul and creates jobs. Tourism as the villain: how it’s destroying everything it touches. Travel — how it harms or saves — you, our communities and our planet.
(I think it’s wise to understand the virtue and vice of something especially if you like doing it.)
This year’s World Tourism Day theme is “Tourism and Green Investments.” Something about better-targeted investments for more sustainable goals.
Reading that made me sigh. Because as much as technology has changed, our struggles have not. But maybe that could be a good thing? The work is always going to be the same across generations, time or space.
Sustainability. It’s a good word.
Harmony is an even better one, in my opinion.
I think back on the fears of (my) students.
It seems to me they were afraid of losing something they thought could be lost.
Connection.
And *this* is something I’m learning as I’ve traveled. I now like to call it ”exploring”, or simply “going”— void of all connotations, good or bad.
As I… go, I realized that ultimately travel is (my) our pursuit of the most basic of needs — connection.
Connection to the land, the earth — and everything in it.
Connection to the things we create and that creates us — food, culture, religion, sports, medicine, businesses…
Connection, ultimately, to each other.
Which leads me to one the best travel advice I’ve ever gotten:
“So be sure when you step, step with care and great tact. And remember that life’s A Great Balancing Act.”
From one of the best travel books ever written: Oh the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss.
Digital copy here:
http://benavidez5thgrade.weebly.com/uploads/8/6/7/3/86734958/oh-the-places-youll-go-by-dr-seuss.
☀️
