theory: a large fraction of travel is because of mimetic desire (seeing other people travel and feeling fomo / keeping up with the joneses), signalling purposes (posting on IG, demonstrating socioeconomic status), or mental compartmentalization of leisure time (similar to how it’s really bad for your office and bedroom to be the same room).
this explains why in every tourist destination there are a whole bunch of very popular tourist traps that are in no way actually unique/comparatively-advantaged to the particular destination. for example: shopping, amusement parks, certain kinds of museums.
I used to agree with this but am now less certain that travel is mostly mimetic desire/signaling/compartmentalization (at least for myself and people I know, rather than more broadly).
I think “mental compartmentalization of leisure time” can be made broader. Being in novel environments is often pleasant/useful, even if you are not specifically seeking out unusual new cultures or experiences. And by traveling you are likely to be in many more novel environments even if you are a “boring traveler”. The benefit of this extends beyond compartmentalization of leisure, you’re probably more likely to have novel thoughts and break out of ruts. Also some people just enjoy novelty.
I think this is probably true of you and people around you but also you likely live in a bubble. To be clear, I’m not saying why people reading this should travel, but rather what a lot of travel is like, descriptively.
What fraction would you say is genuinely motivated by “seeing and experiencing another culture”? I don’t doubt that most travel is performative, but I also think most of the people I interact with seem to have different motivations and talk about things from their travels which are a world away from the Pulp Fiction beer in a McDonalds discussion.
theory: a large fraction of travel is because of mimetic desire (seeing other people travel and feeling fomo / keeping up with the joneses), signalling purposes (posting on IG, demonstrating socioeconomic status), or mental compartmentalization of leisure time (similar to how it’s really bad for your office and bedroom to be the same room).
this explains why in every tourist destination there are a whole bunch of very popular tourist traps that are in no way actually unique/comparatively-advantaged to the particular destination. for example: shopping, amusement parks, certain kinds of museums.
I used to agree with this but am now less certain that travel is mostly mimetic desire/signaling/compartmentalization (at least for myself and people I know, rather than more broadly).
I think “mental compartmentalization of leisure time” can be made broader. Being in novel environments is often pleasant/useful, even if you are not specifically seeking out unusual new cultures or experiences. And by traveling you are likely to be in many more novel environments even if you are a “boring traveler”. The benefit of this extends beyond compartmentalization of leisure, you’re probably more likely to have novel thoughts and break out of ruts. Also some people just enjoy novelty.
I think this is probably true of you and people around you but also you likely live in a bubble. To be clear, I’m not saying why people reading this should travel, but rather what a lot of travel is like, descriptively.
What fraction would you say is genuinely motivated by “seeing and experiencing another culture”? I don’t doubt that most travel is performative, but I also think most of the people I interact with seem to have different motivations and talk about things from their travels which are a world away from the Pulp Fiction beer in a McDonalds discussion.