The ONE thing.

Here's some Tourism 101 for you.

For tourism to be tourism, it requires the following four elements:

? Transportation - You need to get to the place. You can't really "travel" without the "going to a place" part.

? Food - I mean, I'm sure the Andrew Huberman types could argue you can do one of those trendy extended fasts during a week-long trip to Rome but I wouldn't recommend it. Also, this is according to a definition from a book on Intro to Tourism I read a while back so we're going with it.

? Accommodation - Same as food. Can you travel without it? Probably. Should you? Probably not.

We all focus heavily on those when we think about tourism,

But there's one more.

It is the ONE concept around which Tailbox was created. Tailbox, in case you didn't know, is an MIT startup developing an absolute GOAT of a travel companion app.

We are talking about the one aspect that becomes 80% of the actual experience. One thing that is perhaps the most accessible in terms of investment as well as destination and infrastructure development.

The one thing that -arguably- matters the most before and during our trips. The thing that lasts the most in the minds and hearts of those who travel. The book calls it "Interpretation".

? Interpretation - The Story.

I like to think of this as the "seeing beyond what's in front of you" part of tourism. Interpretation can get pretty nuanced quickly but it is often the ONE reason people travel, particularly for leisure.

It is the hidden gems , the story behind the building you're looking at, and all the history of the street you're walking on. The explanation of the myth behind the pattern on the traditional clothes people wear.

Also, interpretation is in no way limited to when you leave your town. You probably have walk-passed dozens of times by a coffee shop with some seriously cool history or a mural from a famous artist, or a mundane-looking house that was actually the childhood home of your favourite local author.

This has happened to all of us. All the time.

I hate to break it to you, but we've been missing out on appreciating some seriously cool stuff wherever we go.

When you think about it, there was really no way to find out about the mind-blowing story behind all those places and things around you. Until now. I mean, I guess you can go asking random people about the story of every funny-looking building around you... But besides coming across as weird, it might not be the best use of your time.

Back to the concept of our Tourism 101 book. Interpretation is not only what makes us enjoy and value a trip, but also what makes us go on a trip in the first place.

Put differently, interpretation is the:

–"I'll go where I heard the special thing is..."

or

–"I'd like to [take a selfie in, oops, no, no] know more about the people and places different to mine..."

or

–"I heard that there is a big rock somewhere that you can walk to, and when you stand there the view is insane (for a selfie? ??) and apparently, a long time ago, some people who spoke a different language than mine and wore clothes nobody wares anymore used to do things no one else did...

You know what? That sounds cool. I'll ask Sandra for some time off from work.

Yeah, I'll do that.

Then I'll go get myself some clothes more suitable for the weather where the big rock is. I will arrange said clothes SO nicely in my suitcase that, there is no force in nature that will allow me to fit them all back in when I'm packing for coming back.

I will also wake up at stupid in the morning to get on a taxi to the airport where I will have some criminally overpriced bottle of water and a mediocre coffee to go with that (actually, pretty decent) croissant.

I'll get on a plane with a bunch of strangers -some of whom are still wearing masks in 2024 (seriously?)-, watch 3 or 4 episodes of Friends on a tiny screen and land at another airport.

There I will buy more overpriced water, even worse coffee and a sandwich I could 100% have made at home. Then I'll get on another plane where I will get woken up with neck pain to be served food that either has waaay too much salt or tastes like nothing. Like nothing at all. It's just texture and no flavour, that's what I'm saying.

14 hours later I will have arrived at a place where people speak funny, I'll get ripped off by the taxi driver (but I won't know until later, so it's fine) on my way to the hotel. I will unpack some things, use their 1.2MB/s wifi to report with friends or family that the plane didn't crash, do a final check on that route to the big rock place and go to sleep.

The next morning I will get out of bed, put those local-weather-appropriate clothes I packed, feel adventurous, get breakfast, steal two bananas from the buffet and get going to the big rock place.

I'll get picked up by a guy who sounds both, interested about where I come from and slightly bored at answering the same silly questions about his home town.

In the car there will be interesting people from other places, and I will learn about those too. I will find that conversation interesting during our 2-hour drive to the place where the walk starts.

After walking for 1.5 hours, getting a blister on the back of my foot, realising I'm less fit than I thought, telling myself 'I will start working out when I get back home' (spoiler, I won't) and getting bitten by some local insects, I will have arrived to the big rock place.

?? Magical.

The guide lets us do what we all came here to do and take those selfies. Then he starts telling us about the things that happened a long time ago in that place, what life was like back then, how people from back then did things...

?? Mind-blowing.

It's a lot to take so I'll probably forget half of it by the time I get back home.

But a few things I will remember, and I will remember them forever. Not citing the facts about the place or its people, you can ask ChatGPT about those (do people Google things anymore?).

I'm talking about the experiences that will inevitably get tattooed into my brain and become a different perspective on things small and big; will change my behaviour without me realising it.

That experience will morph into anecdotes and cool stories to share with friends, later my kids and even later my grandkids.

Worth it?

Abso-f*cking-lutely.

So yeah, that big rock place sounds pretty cool.

I'll go ask Sandra for my days off and hope she doesn't give me shit for it."

Never has uncovering all those cool stories been more accessible than now, thanks to the brainchild of a couple of travel junkies and their MIT startup. Seriously, try Tailbox .

You get the point.

Interpretation. Storytelling. The feeling of being somewhere special, with a past, with history, with a legacy. The 'whats' the 'whys', the 'whos'. The reasons. The "beyond what's in front of you".

You could be standing under a tree "cause the sun be scorching".

OR

You could be standing under a 3500-year-old Great Basin Bristlecone Pine that was already well over a millennium old when it saw Cleopatra bathing herself in sour milk.

Stories make you travel; they also make travelling hit differently. That's all I'm saying.

But you knew that already.

I'm part of a fantastic team creating taking this concept to the extreme

?? Tailbox .

We're using AI sorcery to create immersive stories and make them accessible to everyone everywhere.

The Tailbox app is launching in weeks, don't miss out.