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If you haven't yet made your travel plans for 2016, one magazine is on a mission to get you out there exploring the world — now.
For its March issue, Condé Nast Traveler is publishing an article by Eat, Pray, Love's Elizabeth Gilbert, and including perspectives on travel in 2016 from 20 "committed travelers" — from Madeleine Albright to Richard Branson to Padma Lakshmi.
Those 20 people, along with Traveler's editor-in-chief Pilar Guzmán, want to counter global perceptions of danger, as well as promote mutual understanding between different cultures through travel.
"The rationale for continuing to visit places like Istanbul, Paris, Bali or Cairo extends far beyond numbers, and even beyond the popular idea that not going means 'they' (the terrorists) will have won," Guzmán writes. "Rather, the real reason to go is that if we don’t, we give in to our own primal fears, the very ones that, when fed by anger, poverty, disenfranchisement, and isolation, literally and figuratively explode."
Here are 12 more quotes from some of the celebrities, politicians and personalities who participated in the project.
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"It’s about empathy," the secretary of state continued, "which is not only important to the work of our diplomats but to all of us as we seek to understand different cultures as well as our own."
Melinda Gates, chair and trustee of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said travel is not just a challenge to physical barriers.
"I’ve learned that the most meaningful kind of travel doesn’t only close geographic distances between people, it brings them closer in other ways, too," said Gates.
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"The answer to the world’s problems today is not to turn inward," Madeleine Albright said. "We simply have to seize every opportunity to promote understanding between countries and across cultures. And there’s no better way to do that than to explore the world with an open mind, a sturdy carry-on, and clothes that don’t wrinkle."
Television host and author Padma Lakshmi shared a very personal experience that taught her to enjoy the journey.
"My mother and I moved to California when I was a teenager, and it meant that my yearly trips to visit my grandma in Chennai (or Madras as it was then called) grew even longer," she said.
"I would fly, alone, from LAX to Tokyo, then to Singapore, where I’d spend a whole day and night, and finally continue to India. I hated how long it took. I’d hitch a ride with one of several guys touting their hotels at arrivals, find myself an inexpensive room, and hope that nothing would happen to me. This would, I realize, never happen today.
"But I came to love the layovers, discovering not just a new city but a new me, self-reliant and adventurous. It was on these trips— solo vacations which gave me a taste of adulthood and independence — that I first realized I love to travel for travel’s sake."
Kelly Wearstler, founder of Kelly Wearstler Studio, said travel can be a salve to cultural globalization.
"As our world is getting so homogenized, it’s more important than ever to seek out the authentic, the artisanal and the unique," said Wearstler.
Several of the participants cited travel as a way to address divides between cultures.
"We must reach beyond both our borders and our comfort zones to confront today’s greatest challenges," said Barbara Bush, co-founder of Global Health Corps.
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Annabelle Selldorf, founding principal of Selldorf Architects in New York City, in her interview said travel forces people out of their routines, giving "us the freedom to see things with fresh eyes."
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Aerin Lauder, founder and creative director of AERIN, highlighted the educational aspects of world travel.
Journalist and television host Christiane Amanpour focused on the dual purpose of travel: "Traveling and meeting people with different and opposing ideas is as important as finding the most inviting beaches, visiting the best restaurants, and seeing the sights."
So yes, while enjoying a relaxing vacation can be priceless, there is much more to be gained than some R&R.
"Travel is vital, especially in the worst of times," added Amanpour, chief international correspondent at CNN. "I would say that, though, wouldn’t I, as a journalist who runs toward danger, not away from it?"
"Travel unlocks a world of flavor," said Marcus Samuelsson, chef and owner of Red Rooster Harlem and Streetbird Rotisserie.
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"We cannot let fear dictate how we live our lives," Richard Branson toldTraveler. "Soon after the November 2015 Paris attacks, I didn’t think twice about my plans to visit for the COP21 climate change discussions."
He continued: "More than ever before, the world needed to come together. Beyond the contribution travel provides to economies, it plays a vital role in our understanding of diverse cultures, in bringing people together, and in finding solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges."
Many of the people interviewed were verbose in their support of encouraging people to see the world. But leave it to Yoko Ono to simplify the purpose of travel into just four words.
"It circulates your brain," she said.
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By Jessica Plautz, mashable.com, March 1, 2016
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