Stick With Staycations?

Julian Baggini wonders whether going abroad necessarily broadens our horizons:

Travel can yield many benefits. There is the challenge of having to deal with novel and unexpected situations, learning about the world and adapting to different customs. It is something that is meant to forge our character and make us more flexible individuals, confronting our prejudices along the way.

Of course travel isn’t guaranteed to do any such thing. It might in reality create expense and discomfort while merely reinforcing our biases. Things back home can seem so much more civilised. The quality time with your family you were hoping for turns out to be more stressful than life at work. Instead of taking the opportunity to learn about local customs you end up getting drunk with your compatriots.

But there remains a lingering feeling that there is something wrong with being uninterested in travel. Much of this is likely to come down to cultural pressure but there is one way of making sense of it, which is that an unwillingness to travel can reflect a general lack of curiosity about the world. … [S]ome people simply feel that what drives their curiosity happens to be close to home. Far from being a problem, this can be an advantage, if it means that what thrills and stimulates them is nearer, cheaper and more in their control. But then one of the benefits of travel is to be receptive to what is unfamiliar. Taking that lesson means allowing ourselves to be open to other things that stretch our comfort zone.

(Photo of a many-stamped passport by Jesse Edwards)