And here it starts, with the crisis …the moment when more and more people realize truly and deeply about why do we travel and how we have been doing it, just before Coronavirus started and that we could not continue traveling as we were used to.
Even when some travelers and people who work in Tourism knew this before Corona, the truth is that this call to “STOP!” came actually like a volcano eruption with all the caos;
“what’s going on?”, “this can not be happening!”, “oh no, I thought it would last way less”… borders closed, reservations canceled, dramatic drop in projected revenue, job losses, and continuous uncertainty, etc. And specially with the ashes included in this volcano eruption, that are already nourishing the soil for a new beginning.
Yes! ’cause before coronavirus and for whatever the reason moved us, we as humans did need to travel to the top tourist destinations of the year, to visit the most popular tourist attractions, to get where everybody goes, to take with us at least something from nature, to buy meaningless souvenirs, or to take photos with our cameras before even taking them with our own eyes…
Yeah it sounds like a lot of “taking”, isn’t it?
So this time came to ask ourselves: where are we going with traveling? do we like how we travel? do we identify ourselves with the reason we travel? why am I traveling?
So now as a new generation of travelers, more humane, conscious and respectful ones, we can speak our truth, we can travel to our true self and identify that: more than traveling to another tourist destination or going on vacation, where travelers are actually going to and what are they looking for, is:
- to be explorers, not to be the 1st one but to create a better life out of their trips
- to be the one who is visiting, adapting him/herself to the new environment
- to be challenged, even if it includes feeling lost and uncomfortable (at the beginning)
- to grow up, to be more open-minded
- to learn new things, the ones we always wanted but never did or even unexpected ones!
- to contribute, to be helpful, to be part (a good part) of this world
- to connect with our values and believes
- to connect with other people
- to rest, to stop and breath from our current lives
- to be accepted and loved for who we truly are
- to try new things (to see if we can, or at least to try)
- to be safe
- to appreciate what we already have
- to be grateful
- to know more about others, and ourselves
- to know more about nature, and our nature
- to be happy by contributing to others happiness
- to live now
- to be present
- to be more patient, empathic and resilient
- to see with new eyes
- to be amazed
- to be reborn
- to respect and love others, the environment, ourselves.
This is something so amazing about Tourism & Travels, that all those needs can really be fulfilled by traveling in a more humane, conscious, respectful and sustainable way.
And we need to be realistic, this is not going to change 100% right now, but! if more and more people are now talking fearless about this new way of traveling, highly demanded by nature, cultures and our inner sense of being humans, so at least now I can say that’s a great gift we got from this pandemic.
‘Cause even if we continue “traveling to the top destinations of the year”, now we already know we do not need to travel but we do have a big list of personal needs that we can navigate and work on it while we travel, and that’s the moment when each of us start considering and looking for new ways of traveling.
Most probable not changing entirely our way of traveling, but step by step adding new practices, ideas or thoughts that will takes us to this more sustainable and human way of doing Tourism.
For instance, thinking on:
- what are the most sustainable options available and affordable for me?
- what if I learn and/or work while traveling? Yeah! by pleasure.
- I would love to visit more places, but what if this time I get deep into one experience or one destination before jumping into the next one?
- what if I try being the visitor: really adapting to the new culture and environment? being open to learn from different ways of living and thinking
- what if the next vacations I go for taking care of myself? for connecting with myself while traveling? So choosing a new destination or experience would be also determined by that purpose.
When that happens, we automatically transform our trip into a unique and authentic experience, we connect with people that are on the same journey, and we get to places that really need us to be there.
“I truly believe that taking care of the planet, cultures or helping others happens as a consequence of taking care of ourselves”
Nataly Ortiz-Stehle
Tourism B. Manager (UACh)
Deutschland
Turismo Humano 