Why do people travel?

In the beginning

Why do people go on journeys, and what influences their decisions? This is a blog for aspiring Travel Business owners where we look at the essence of travel and why we like it so much.

There has always been travel; it’s just that we've given it so many different names we sometimes forget how global it is, how inbuilt it is to the human physique. Perhaps we might describe travel as instinctive.

The daily commute, the school run, the weekly shop.

We live in a metropolis; we are part of the commuter belt.

Bigger things: Moving to the city to find opportunity and make our fortune.

Greater things: Migration to another country in search of a better life.

You see, travel has been part of our lives, our parents, our grandparents. Indeed, ever since we realised we could or should or had to because major changes took place.

What we need today

Over many centuries, we have invented many forms of transport. Horseback, horse and cart, ships, canal barges, trains, motorised vehicles, aeroplanes, and rockets.

In more recent decades, there has been the birth of the internet. You'd think that would quell the desire for travel by doing away with the need for it. Far from it. In our minds, the world has shrunk. Now, we see everywhere as reachable, political inconveniences notwithstanding.

As a business friend once described it to me. "I need to travel to look the other person in the eye." And he was willing to travel to the ends of the earth to achieve it.

Technology, then, for all its brilliance, cannot replace what we all yearn for—human connections. Not even the latest online meeting experience can deliver on it. Even a certain social media giant thinks they can recreate this virtually, but there is doubt, at least in the medium term, that the mysterious magic can be conjured up.

So, what are these human connections? Another friend described it as a story. He told me, "Alex, I saw you at a sports match at the weekend." "Really, I didn't see you," I replied. "Well, Alex, even from a mile away, I knew it was you!" You see, he was right. When you get to know anyone better, we have unique attributes always on display. It is like a signature in movement; when you add a person's voice to their gestures, you have a complete picture. it has been calculated that when we speak, this represents only about 7% of the conversation. The rest is about everything else.

This is why travel remains an important part of our lives

The Future of Travel

In 2019, $1.2 Trillion dollars was spent on business travel. Even during the pandemic, it only dropped back to $750 Billion dollars. What most experts now agree is that 2023 is expected to be 8 times bigger. A major upsurge in travel.

If you are considering or even if you are wondering if starting a travel consultancy is for you, all I can say is that the opportunities are amazing on many levels.

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