More Than One Way to Travel

There has long been a distinction between those who travel more to confirm what they already know than ________ new understanding of themselves and of others. One thinks of Mark Twain's 1860s satirical novel, “Innocents Abroad”, on American travellers who brought so much cultural (and other) baggage with them that they were only “In-a-Sense” Abroad.

The stereotypical tourist – whether of Twain's time or our own – doesn't so much abandon his own familiar environment for the sake of engaging with a new one as have himself transported to a foreign place, taking with him as much of his familiar environment as possible. He views unfamiliar people, places, and ________ through the windows or walls of the familiar and pretends that he is still at home.

The modern American traveller, on the other hand, is increasingly interested in ________new people, places, and cultures on their own terms and precisely because they are unfamiliar. The transition is not simply a passage from one place to another; it is a change in ________ and perception.

Alternative travel, or travel for ________, grew rapidly in the 1970-80s, partly because international air ________ became more affordable for many people. In 1989, “Travel & Leisure” magazine surveyed thousands of travelling Americans to find out why they took trips. To their surprise, three out of every four travellers took their last trip to ________ their minds, to gain new perspectives, and to meet new people.

Arthur Frommer, who has been writing standard international tour ________ for over 30 years, commented in 1991, “Travel in all price ranges is scarcely worth the effort unless it is associated with people, with learning and ideas. To have meaning at all, travel must involve an encounter with new and different ________ and beliefs.” Frommer continued, “Not to have met the people of other cultures in a non-touristic setting is not to have lived in this century.”

In reality, the experience of travel involves a continuum from the familiar to the new. At one extreme are the unadventurous package and mass tourists who spend most of their trip in a literal bubble being whisked along on a ________, usually in an air-conditioned bus. Making no decisions of their own, they are taken on a fixed schedule, from one ________ to another. They observe and photograph, but rarely actively experience their ________. At the other extreme, are those relatively few travellers who avoid the tourist scene altogether and strike out on their own. They are on no fixed schedule or itinerary and settle where they like for as long as they like, finding casual work when necessary to cover their modest ________ or to pay for moving on.

Between the two extremes are those of us in that growing group of travellers who like to go on our own, often to pursue a particular interest, but only after enough planning and preparation to insure that our limited time and money will be well-spent. We don't want to be bound to a group or have our experience spoiled by hordes of tourists; on the other hand, we want to be ________ and feel sufficiently ________ to accomplish our goals.