Reinventing Travel

What do we bring, and what do we leave behind?

When you think Italy, what images comes to mind? An espresso in Venice’s Piazza San Marco? A glass of wine in an impossible Cinque Terre restaurant, hanging over the sea? Or the Sicilian Cosa Nostra gangsters from the The Godfather?

To me, it is this scene in Panni, Puglia. A song near kid’s football field.

Now, let me explain.

When traveling, there comes a moment when you start seeing the nonsense. Do you really need to see a gothic cathedral number forty-seven? Or meet more backpackers in yet another hostel, while you’ve already befriended - and practically forgotten - a thousand others? Or burn gallons of jet fuel chasing spirituality across time zones? The absurdity and hypocrisy of you, a consumer of fake experience, all while masquerading as an alternative backpacker.

This is when you begin searching for a new format of travel, more satisfactory and meaningful.

Mainstream travel has been defined along three axes: services (quality of which is the function of traveler’s budget), attractions, and activities.

My proposition is to reinvent and redefine travel, along these three dimensions: connection, stories, values.

1. Connection

Here I mostly mean two things: connecting with the people and the nature. Both are considerably more difficult done than said, mainly for psychological reasons, and both are highly rewarding. This part of travel often requires some non-standard thinking.

• How to break out of the box of tourism industry and bind with those we meet

• How to travel solo - to experience fear and courage, solitude and loneliness, the touch of the miraculous, and the beauty of silence

  

2. Stories

We walk along the forest road: myself and two village boys. We notice an object - a small stone, colored and decorated by human hands. My friends stop: ‘We cannot go further. This road is blocked by magic, dangerous.’ Then they look at me: ‘But you can.’

I am confused: ‘How come you cannot go, but I can?’

They answer: ‘You are safe from magic. Because you don’t believe in it.’

Most people in their life journey seek to bind with those who think alike. Over time, they construct their bubble and seal it so well that they never venture out. Travel is about escaping that bubble and meeting those who think, talk and act differently: people your friends would never introduce you to, and their impossible stories. This part of travel is about curiosity, openness, listening and understanding.

3. Values

The village had no school. Then the European volunteers came and built everything: the walls and the roof, the wooden desks and chairs. Meanwhile, the parents of the children, mostly unemployed, sat on their porches, drank ataya, and watched. The price of a single volunteer’s plane ticket was equivalent to five months’ wages for a local worker.

This section is the difficult part. Here we should talk about:

• How to truly help those encountered on the way (and should you)

• The human, moral and personal values we bring. What are they? Are they universal? To what extent should we share them, if confrontet with other cultures?

• The Catch-22 of travel tourism: everyone wants to go where no one else goes. So, what’s the solution?

In essence, the focus on values implies consideration of the net effect of our travel: what do we bring and what do we leave behind.

Making sense of travel

To summarize, reinventing travel is about investing time and effort in understanding (stories), making deep connection, and sharing values across cultural divides.

It is also about breaking stereotypes. Africa is not starving children. To me, Africa is Davide the grogo maker hugging his cousin. France is not Paris - it is Charlotte singing in the festival kitchen. Poland is not Kraków, but rather the forest blossom. And Italy? It is not Venice, but it is Ahmed’s vigorous song near children’s football field (Guess what, not all Italian boys are called Leonardo!)

It is also about laughter, gaining perspective and letting go our naïve ideas about how the world should be. Ahmed’s song in the video says:

Quant'è bello lu primm'ammore, lu secondo è cchiù bello ancor

That means: How beautiful is the first love… and the second one, even better!

That’s what I roughly mean by making sense of life & travel.

P.S.

I am not alone with those ideas. Many people think that travel needs reinventing, and actively search. Without any judgment or ranking, some related concepts are:

• Conscious travel

• Slow travel

• Responsible Travel

• Sustainable Travel

• Ethical Travel

• Intentional Travel

• Regenerative Travel

• Minimalist Travel

• Immersive Travel

• Cultural Travel

• Volunteer Travel (Voluntourism)

• Low-Impact Travel

• Eco-Travel / Green Travel