Should we travel?

November 2015: my second visit to the remarkable Aztec city of Teotihuacan. I was first there twenty years prior, when I taught in Mexico. This 2015 visit remains one of my most memorable travel days of all time.

Hello listeners,

“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.” ― Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad / Roughing It

Read this quote again, and again. Do you agree with Mr. Twain? Do you disagree? Why?

We’re thinking and talking about travel and tourism today because who doesn’t like to travel?

Well, actually, I know a few people who really don’t like it, but by and large, I think most people these days love the idea of a trip, a break from the daily grind, an opportunity to get away from the familiar and explore someplace new.

Traveling hasn’t always been so accessible, and by that I mean that the costs in terms of money and time in the past were such that only the very rich could afford to travel. It’s only since the 1960s that travel has become increasingly more common, and as a consequence, there are now problems with travel that are too glaring to ignore.

It’s impossible to reflect on the many benefits of travel without considering these repercussions, and I try to do just that today, in a new episode of Hear You Go podcast.

🎙️Episode 95 is titled "So, should we still travel?”, and it’s one of the questions most on my mind these days.

As I plan a dream trip to Newfoundland, I find myself wrestling with the ethics of tourism: carbon footprints, overtourism, and the impact of my choices on local communities.

In this episode, I share, as I so often do, personal stories, I ask some hard questions that might make you feel uncomfortable, but I also end by offering a few simple ways we can travel more thoughtfully.

If you’re looking for the perfect or right answer to this conundrum, I haven’t found it yet. Sorry.

But what about you? Do you ask yourself questions about the ethics of travel and tourism? How do you reconcile the negative impact of tourism with the positive benefits of travel?

Have a listen, review, and explore the additional links located in the podcast episode notes, and let me know what YOU think.

→ By and large is a C1 idiom meaning overall, or for the most part

→ The daily grind is a way to say the exhausting, repetitiveness of everyday life, especially work life

→ a conundrum is a problem that is very difficult to solve

🎧 Listen to the episode here.

I'm quietly working away on the new audio program. There will be 5 more episodes of Hear You Go podcast before the official launch of Worth a Listen.

Thanks for being here with me,

Catherine