Travel today

 Travel today

Four travel bloggers give their opinion on the purpose of travel in the 21st century.

A.- Arrival at a destination is often thought to be the prime purpose of travel these days. Taken in this way the journey itself is not the point, rather it is serious business of transporting our bodies form one place to another. Getting to the end location as quickly as possible is the requirement and nowadays this is possible almost instantaneously.

The modern method of travel seals us into tubes called aeroplanes as they charge through the sky at such speeds that we can hardly have any notion of the glorious planet we pass across. We want to get somewhere new and different as quickly as possible, and this is ironic as the very thing that enables us to get there quicker is also what makes all the “theres” so similar. Globalisation through airpower means stepping into the plane and swapping one city for another as though by some magic trick.

B.- It is only since flying became the most popular means of long-distance travel for both leisure and business purposes that journeys have ceased to be of intrinsic interest to the majority of those travelling. In the past, when our only travel choices for such journeys were rail, sea or road, journeys themselves had to be taken account of. A journey that might have taken several days passing through different landscapes and climate zones, can now be completed in a few hours. Our please of arrival will, in many instances, be identical to our place of departure. This change has intellectual as well as practical implications. While we no longer need to worry about food, accommodations or changes of clothing during today’s journeys, we are no longer in a position of enjoying the geographical and cultural differences between the places we through on our journeys. This is a serious loss.

C.- There are those for whom travel is an end itself, a minority in my opinion, who enjoy the journey to their destination more than their arrival. These might deliberately choose a sea voyage lasting two weeks in preference to a long – haul flight. In my view, these travellers belong to a generation of romantics from a bygone age. Sadly, the many cultural differences that once characterized our world and made It a fascinating place to travel through have now all but disappeared. Why would a serious traveller choose to spend more of his or her time and probably money than is necessary simply to get from A to B? Whether one is going on an exotic holiday or an important business trip, the less time spent travelling the better for most modern travellers especially as this means more time is spent at the chose destination.

D.- Those who travel through multiple time zones at high speed but do not realise that is the journey, rather than the destination that matters miss the opportunity to experience something very important. By stopping focusing on arriving, and by travelling long enough to feel the passage of time, we can come to realise that what really matters in travel is the same for life in general. That bubble all around us, that threatens always to trap us in the same frustration – coma we feel at home, can and must be resisted. Travel can and must become a joy in itself and then the broken down buses, the flies and the baking heat will not bother us. The evidence that is possible is out there to see. Great travel books and writing are never just about the destination, they are about the changes the act of travelling bring about during a journey.