Why we travel, part 3

Read an interesting article today. It's from USA Today about 25 pivotal changes in why we travel. Basically the mainstream media think we travel because you can book things online (reason #1), airports now are more like malls (#7) and because the TSA are dunces and make you take off shoes. Sure, this is how the travel landscape has changed. But really, all 25 "pivotal changes" sited by USA Today miss the point. Travel has always been a challenge, always had things that make it easy / hard depending on the current state of world affairs. But it's a little sad that this article missed the truly important 'pivotal change' over the past 25 years. Why do we travel? Because people crave to discover new culture. Make new connections. To discover the world, and more about themselves, in the process. USA Today has identified the effects. The causes, it has completely missed. The most pivotal element of travel over the last 25 years is the thing that hasn't changed at all. Not one bit. People remain curious, and keen to connect. That's the true #1 thing about travel that is pivotal. Same as it ever was.

Why we travel, part 2

Why do we travel? Sometimes I wonder, what's the real motivation for people to travel? Not weekend getaways. Not seven day holidays. I mean long-term travel, 2 months stints or longer. Seems to me, there's a mix between internal desires (to escape, to be self sufficient, test yourself, to prove that you can do this) and external ones (see new things, eat different foods, meet new people). Strange that the external motivations are 'new and different', and the internal ones really having nothing to do with tavelling, about where you are, only about who you are.

There are some very strange travel websites out there. Here's one. Looks like it dates from the late 1990s. But I think it's current. I wonder, did they really by all those souvenirs?

What's in a name? Many people ask that about viator. I don't know what it means, stop asking. What can I offer you? A quick search on the Internet brings these meanings to life:

• A travel website about tours and sightseeing
• A municipality of Almeria prvince, Spain
• A woman who works out a lot
• The Latin word for 'traveler', apparently
• A student group in Poland
• A high school in Chicago

Who knew. I'm sticking with my own definition.