Surprisingly, lots of people don't travel

I don’t know about you, but I know a lot of people who either don’t travel, travel in a very limited fashion, or disdain travel. One person I know absolutely loathes every single aspect of travel, from packing bags to getting into a car to drive to the airport, to the airport check-in, waiting at the gate, the yuckiness of security, the turmoil of plane boarding, the bus/taxi connection to the vacation rental - you name it. She’d rather sit at home and watch travelogues or use me and travel vicariously! Ye even a mention of one of my upcoming trips leads her to sigh. Then there are others who only seem to travel within North America but never Europe or another continent, or if Europe only to the UK. I’m surmising this is partly because the language is the same and that a lot of people are intimidated by foreign languages and cultures, though English is widely spoken everywhere. I can understand if people can’t afford to travel, even for relatively short trips from one province to another or within a specific part of North America. But it’s people with money – often retired – who sit at home and do…..what exactly? That’s their prerogative. Yet I’m still puzzled. Why wouldn’t you want to open yourself to the wider world, experience a completely new location and culture? Another theory I have for why people don't travel is lethargy. They’re simply caught in a rut. I too know the feeling. A few decades ago, I had every opportunity to visit Florida year after year as a guest of a family member. But I turned invites down. Lethargy, lack of will, in a rut, same old same old, creature of habit. People complain incessantly about airports, line-ups, delays in boarding, bumping into other passengers as they stow bags overhead. These are my top complaints as well. Recently, the UK’s Daily Mail travel editor Mark Palmer responded to some of his high-profile journalistic colleagues, fed up with hassles, who are swearing off travel. Why, he replied, would you do that when despite airport and connection irritants it’s still easier to travel than it has ever been before. A few hours to cross the country, several to another continent, double to the other side of the planet. When has travel been so easy and affordable, especially with online booking and package holidays? So, when I travel (and curse) an overcrowded airport I wonder: just who are all these people travelling, because very few people I know do. 

- Ron Stang, Windsor Ontario Canada, a frequent traveller