Our travel habits – an expression of our lifestyle

About wanderlust, everyday escape, desire for closeness & a journey to ourselves

With around 55 million holiday travellers in 2019, figures in Germany were higher than ever before. 55 million people in search of relaxation, luxury, adventure and fulfilment. Just one year later, however, everything changed. A high was followed by a low. On 17 March of last year, the Foreign Office issued a worldwide travel warning for holiday trips. "We stay at home" became the new motto during the Corona crisis. For our climate an enrichment, for many holidaymakers and the tourism industry an absolute loss. What was initially bearable, however, became torture for many after a short time. Suddenly there was this emptiness within one that needed to be filled. This longing for distance – longing for distance from the familiar. By the time one was sitting in front of the laptop and browsing the internet or social media for exotic travel destinations, wanderlust had gripped one sooner or later. But why do we actually travel so much and so willingly? Do we really need to get on an aeroplane to find fulfilment? Or has the Corona pandemic only made us aware of a long overdue issue?
Our world today is becoming ever faster-paced. For many, therefore, a holiday means above all one thing: deceleration. Gaining distance from everyday life, away from stress and monotony. Yet upon arrival at the holiday destination, everyday life often continues much as before, just by other means. From city trips with sightseeing tours and endless shopping sprees, to seaside holidays, where culinary highlights are ticked off at least as much as the sights on city holidays. A photo, post it on the internet and on to the next hotspot. The main thing is that consumption doesn't stop. From the search for peaceful nature and ancient cultures, for peace and deceleration, becomes above all one thing: the search for a quiet spot to escape the crowds of people, armed with their Lonely Planets and smartphones, all ticking off the same places, hotels and restaurants. Eventually the holiday ends, one returns home and what has changed? That's right – nothing. There's also no time for real reflection, because the normal everyday madness continues. And as if that weren't enough, whilst we sip tomato juice above the clouds, we also inflict immense damage on our environment. Our travel habits – an expression of our lifestyle.
Already the Greek fabulist Aesop said: "Whoever is discontent in one place will rarely be happier in another place." The reason? Our self, which we carry with us, no matter where we go, no matter how far we distance ourselves. Is it therefore not primarily a different self, different facets of ourselves, that we seek when travelling and the place itself only secondary? Does it take the foreign environment to awaken the foreign within us?
When thinking about this question, I like to look back on my childhood and a story that has stayed with me to this day: Oh, how beautiful is Panama. The friends little tiger and little bear live in a little house near a river. Both dream of the land Panama, where everything is supposed to be better, bigger and more beautiful than at home. They therefore decide to set out to find this place. Along the way, however, they are often led in the wrong directions and don't notice that they're actually just going round in circles the whole time, which is why they eventually arrive back at their old home. But because some time had passed, they don't even recognise their house, which had been damaged by the weather. They actually believe they have arrived at their destination, repair the little house and are happy to finally be able to live in the land of their dreams. The little house now seemed to them as beautiful as no other place in the world. "Oh Tiger," the little bear now said every day, "how good it is that we found Panama, isn't it?" Only from a distance could they recognise what they had not seen from close up: how beautiful and valuable their own homeland actually is. Coming to oneself whilst going away; going away in order to arrive. Therein lies the dialectic of travelling.

What can we take away from this? Certainly, a greater awareness of our actual reasons for travelling. Am I only seeking a beautiful environment? A boundary experience? Something new? A journey to myself? Especially for the latter, the environment hardly plays a role, because it is more about self-realisation than exploring foreign places. Whether short trips or long-term travel, comfort or adventure holidays, there are many different types of travel. However, for most reasons one does not have to undertake a long-haul trip every time. Let us look at the words of Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore: "I sometimes imagine, as I walk through the streets, that I am a stranger, and only then do I discover how much there is to see, where I otherwise pass by heedlessly." When taking a close look at one's own or nearby surroundings, it should not be about the navel-gazing of a comfortable balcony holiday. Rather, it is about the experience that the "familiar", that which is "close" to us, is often interwoven with the "foreign". Whoever goes through their everyday life with more mindfulness will discover that one does not need to board an aeroplane for encounters with unfamiliar ways of life, for new adventures and impressions, and rarely even a train. The "foreign" is so much closer than we often think possible. To be able to perceive it, we simply need to downshift a few gears; slow down our movement – decelerate.

Theresa Achatz