You’ve chosen to take that gap year, you’ve gotten that bonus, you’ve finally cashed in on that 401k. You’re ready to spend those hard earned vacation days.
And now it’s your time to travel.
The time is here and after putting your head down and doing as you’ve been told this choice is now yours, and yours alone to begin a personal adventure into a world fresh and unknown.
You feel so lucky to finally be able to start your journey towards self discovery, and nothing can get in your way, because it truly can’t, the world is about to open up to you. You deserve this and boy should you be giddy.
But so are a million others.
In fact, billions of others. In 2020 the World Tourism Organization predicts 1.6 billion total travelers will engage in travel. Tourism has grown at a rate of 9% year to year and if you know anything about compound interest this means that this ridiculous surge of vacationers is, and will, continue to rapidly change the landscapes of popular destinations.
You travel to experience new cultures and climates, and explore the unknown. To immerse yourself in ways of life that enrich and challenge the way you think about your own place in the world.
And with this growing global trend brings some pretty upsetting downsides.
Influxes of tourism put enormous pressure on the pristine beauty of our natural wonders, threatening the collective wealth we all have a god given right to witness. Before cheap air fares and modern technology, travel was reserved for the richest of the rich. The ability to venture outside of your immediate village or city for purposes other than business reflected a level of status very few would ever reach.
Without telephones, the internet, or even photography, the most you could dream of, if you happened to be in the lucky majority that could even afford to take time off from sustenance labor, would be admiring the wonders of the world beyond through paintings, sculptures, and stories.
Thanks to the marvels of our human genius, now almost everyone of any class has the ability to travel.
In a matter of hours anyone anywhere may journey to any of the great wonders gifted to humanity. This is great news; everyone can experience and be enriched by the mysteries of their own undiscovered frontiers.
But our world is finite.
And the more that people enrich themselves through exploration, we bring our own host of problems.
Over use of trails and tourist routes lead to erosion and ecological degradation of plant and animal life, not to mention the permanent decay of historical structures and sites. Paths get used and used till erosion sets in, and the more that people stray from these, the more permanent damage pushes back the boundaries of the wilderness we’ve come from so far to witness.
Historical and cultural heritage sites become economic props and face damage and permanent erasure because of poor policies and thoughtless tourism.
Albeit by no fault of our own.
There is an itch we all share in our dna to explore and discover; how do you think we got so far as a species?
Still, it is a sad truth that with more people these sites can be permanently altered for all future generations to come.
With tourism predicted to grow at a steady 4% increase per year, and with no signs of slowing down, it’s important for us to recognize the fine line we must tread in order to maintain natural wealth for our kids and grandchildren to share.
When traveling make plans to have the lightest impact possible.
Dispose of trash properly, follow the guidelines, tread lightly, and be intelligent in the ways you spend your money and interact with local cultures. Small things you might not even think of when compounded can have disastrous effects over time on the locale.
“Choosing to travel mindfully and respectfully not only allows others to enjoy what you and many before have, it also leads to the most powerful and fulfilling experiences we are capable of experiencing on our earth.”
To truly be enriched and changed by the experiences you will encounter, explore with an open and empathetic mind. Think about how even the smallest decisions you make, when compounded, can rob others of the rich and colorful destinations that you have the oh so precious privilege of being able to enjoy.
Learn the languages, taste the food, meet the people, and realize that we have incredible power either to preserve, to gift, or to erase the only historical and natural records we have to the delicate beauty of our existence on earth.
Max's Repertoire 