Why People Travel

Event at the lake of Yangshuo near West Street and facing the nice Bilian (Green Lotus) Hill, I brought out my Nokia E71 smartphone, and Googled the question: "Why people travel?"

Yes. That was exactly the question in my mind, and the question I tried very hard to answer. I read books about it, fall into deep thought in airports, and hotels, and even went to many places myself. The question was still in my mind that I still didn’t find a satisfactory answer. When I am reading a blog entry started with this

I’m writing from my hotel balcony in Giza City, Egypt – just outside Cairo, and the site of the historic Pyramids. The sun is coming up right now, and the view is great..

I feel that I am very attracted by the scene, and would love to check out airline websites. But, I still don’t have the exact answer to the question: "Why People Travel?"

Before I continue to write my answers, I am turning my question to my readers. Why you travel? By travel, I am excluding business travel or other travels that you are required to. I mean the travel that you WANT to go yourself. Again, my question is, Why YOU travel?

11 thoughts on “Why People Travel

  1. 估计这次来桂林没有让你爽歪歪,因为宣传中的桂林和真实中的桂林是不一样的,可以说,你被桂林山水甲天下,愿作桂林人不愿作神仙给误导了。

    我来解答吧,因为我也想过这个问题,旅游的意义就在于注重那种感受。到不同的地方感受不同的感受,当然,你在去之前自然是希望有一种好的感受。可是如果真的去了感受不好的话,你当然会失望。正如同刘润准备去的戈壁探险一下,其实要的就是一种感受。追求这种感受有很多种,比如有想去追求一下冒险考验一下自己的,有想去看看大自然的风光享受一下的,也有想开开眼界,到没去过的有非常了不起事物的地方亲眼看一下的。这些都是旅游的目的。在于二字“亲身”。你在书本上,照片里看过桂林的风景一定不少,但问题是,你亲身去那里感受的话和你在书本上看的话真的一样吗?我很遗憾桂林的旅游业搞得并不好,因为我个人认为,是桂林的旅游业把桂林的风景搞差了,就我本人来说,我就感受到桂林的不同,去年骑单车给别人一起去桂林游山玩水,踩着单车上山,去冠岩去鸡冠山,去九马画山,那山里面的风景确实不错,久不久去一次还是不错的。

    生活在人群中久了,离自然也越来越远了。我现在这种感受越来越强烈。其实旅游也是一种人的心理层面的需求,当你没有这方面的心理需求,或者说,没有达到满足的时候,你就会越来越觉得没意思吧。

  2. i think just like the words “why climb the hills?”,since here are hills!

    Your question sound simple,but there isn’t the only perfect answer forever! everyone has a diffrent answer. like you, i thought the same question before. to me, the trip is my hobby,if i tired to the scenes and stories in my city ,i will go to a new place for passion or news or relaxation.then it’s true life!

    it’s a good question,eager to get the others answer!

  3. Simple. 1st, you must love travelling than only you travel.

    2nd. You get to see other parts of the world, or different things.

    3rd. You enjoy watching different cultures and different scenery and learn about others.

    4th. de-stress.

    5th perhaps you love photography and vedeo-ing.

    6th. fedup of your present situation and you need a break away !

  4. Well. There are many different reasons, like to see other part of the world, different things, new things. But what is the fundamental reasons behind all these reasons? Why we NEED to see new things? Why we want to learn the other part of the world? Why travel can help de-stressing?

    Why people just take all the trouble to leave where he/she leaves? Is that so important? What is the root cause that drives people see new things?

  5. This is an interesting question, Jian Shuo and, even though I love to travel, I don’t think I can answer it. For me, at least part of the motivation is to understand other people. I will always remember how much it surprised me the first time I was outside the US to discover that people in other parts of the world buy food in supermarkets just like we do, buy clothes in department stores, just like we do, and have relationships, jobs, medical emergencies and flower gardens just like we do. I don’t really know what I was expecting, but I do remember the feeling of being surprised. When we travel, I think the world becomes a smaller (and better) place as we come to understand that people all over the world are not so very different from us after all.

  6. I’d like to broaden my eyes by traveling, as well as, by reading

    Because I always think

    I am small, but the world is big

    I should keep on going to know more and more about it, it’s my responsibility and meaning of my life.

  7. to me it is curiosity. We have so many why and what questions in our mind ever since we are brought to this world. An individual will start have to this curiosity at the age of 3 and will start looking for answer.

    also because curiosity, mankind will explore, improve, invent.

    I guess Yifan also looking for a lot of answers from you. He probably start asking you a lot of this why and what questions. hehe…

  8. If you do not go out there, you do not really see what is going on here, because you do not have a perspective. And your perspective becomes deeper with each travel. I guess this might be one of the reasons.

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