“Where do we go for our next holiday – the living room or the bedroom?” asks a little kid to his parents. The family of three in New Delhi are spending time in their two bedroom apartment watching Ramayana on TV when the entire country is going through a complete lockdown period to minimise the spread of the COVID 19 virus.
This is a common scenario in almost every urban household throughout the world.
Globally this unprecedented pandemic has struck a big blow to all industries with the economy in every country rapidly drifting southwards – travel and tourism sector – a lifeline in many countries is no exception to this.
The closure of international borders, visa withdrawals, reducing the number of domestic and international flights to the bare minimum, cancellations of all travel in the imminent future – this leading to in some cases shutting down of airlines, hotels and tour operators – tells how badly tourism is getting affected.
During these unfavourable circumstances, as a travel and tourism expert I am being regularly asked “Shall we be able to travel again?”
“Yes of course”, I say.
In my opinion, travel presently is in a persuaded stage of unconsciousness, but not dead. Once the situation normalise people with itchy feet will expeditiously return to the road, railway stations, cruise terminals, ferry ghats and airports.
I proclaim my views this way based on the history of travel since the inception of human society.
Travel is an essential human urge which at one time pressed Moses to journey for 40 years to find the Holy Land, moved Alexander the Great to conquer the world, enthused Columbus, Vasco da Gama and Captain Cook to find new shores and inspired explorers like Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, Livingstone and many others to unveil the mysteries of our planet.
Overtime introduction of technology has made travel easier and faster. Today Moses could have rushed from Egypt to his Holy Land in just a few hours. This easiness of travel has spread that inherent urge in humans to grow with each individual having their own reason to catch a train or board a flight.
For some it’s still the excitement of unveiling the unknown, uniting with nature, seeing the icons that so far have been seen in calendars and posters through own eyes, bringing alive the past, experiencing the cultures that have been read or heard of and making new friends. For many travel today means recharging batteries, energising mind body and soul, partying and chilling out. Some travel simply to shop and eat while there are quite a few who feels by travelling they learn, gather knowledge, and build character and develop personal qualities like how to be patient during difficult circumstances.
None of these longings within ourselves will ever die. History bears testimony to this as the world has seen, fought and overcome many crunches and downturns in the past.
So we are not giving up on travel at all, it’s only the question of time when we start again.
Till that happens, we can keep our ignition to travel switched on.
We can do many things to keep our travel bug alive like reading travel books by Bill Bryson, Paul Theroux and William Darlymple, see Discovery Channel on television and Destination Travel Videos on YouTube. We can take the atlas or the globe to show kids where Madagascar or Venezuela is to increase their geography knowledge on point at Chittorgarh in India or Waterloo in the UK to bring alive the heroic tales of warriors from another time. Doing this, we keep buzzing the hopes of travelling again soon.
In this context I have a request to television producers and publishers of all print and digital publications around the world. Please don’t discontinue travel shows on television and don’t stop publishing travel pages because travel is restricted now.
In today’s difficult times, possibly these footage or pages can create a sense of hope – can energise the reader’s mind, bring positives in their thoughts and at times provide a route to escape from reality as it’s needed also to survive.
(Sandip Hor is an Australia based international travel writer and photographer. He has travelled to more than 100 countries and has published over 500 articles in various publications in many countries)