Travel Authenticity Debate

You seem to be setting the bar very high just to exclude people. Anyone who takes time out of their lives to visit a new place and meet a few people and get a new perspective should be encouraged.What you see as "superficial", I see as a starting place. Maybe you don't really get to know the locals, but maybe you do get to meet other tourists from other countries, and then maybe you feel more comfortable traveling to their countries.

"You never meet people in their own country" is a factoid I've noticed.You have more in common with fellow travelers than you will have with people who are just status quo.

Travelling doesn't mean having to visit all the tourist sites. You can travel anywhere and get a much more genuine experience by not going every tourists destination. You will have such a better experience. Especially like in your case if you studied/know the local language.

Hey now, though he's not saying it well, he's got a point. I've been on some extensive travels and sometimes everything starts to blend together. I sit in a cafe and can't remember which city I'm in. It's really the people you meet that stand out, but the sample size per city is still quite small. It's easy to claim that you get exposed to a different culture, but if you only get to know a few dozen people then you might have found a similar culture back home in a different neighborhood.I thi

There's travel and "travel".My SO and I visited Thailand way before we met each other. I went to a Muay Thai camp and stayed in a nearby town. SO went with a tour guide, slept and ate in hotels, visited some temples and rode cute elephants.My impression of the country is totally different from SO's. I could say the same about India and Morocco.I definitely grew, but not in the way I expected.Westerners often fall into the trap of multiculturalism and this romantic

Traveling expands horizons and gets people out of their bubbles. The world would be a much better, less hostile place if we could all experience other cultures firsthand from time to time.

Can you be more specific? What places are a lot less welcoming in your many travels?

And yet, people traveling somewhere will always end up having a broader life experience and better idea about the world outside, than those who don't travel anywhere... the best way to break prejudices and stereotypes on certain country/people is to visit it, even in a superficial, selfies-taking way...

But you don’t know what you want to do, until you experience it. And you experience so many new activities when travelling. Like food. There is so much good in different countries that you will not get at a dozen restaurants of the same country.People actually treat you differently if your travelling in their country. They are a lot nicer to you, and want to show you around, and include the unique parts of their culture.

There are plenty of pitfalls to the attitude that tourism will grant enlightenment, but I agree that some amount travel is crucial. Experiencing a different society (the everyday bits, not just the facade shown to tourists), even for a short amount of time, helps to humanize the people living in that society (or really, any society other than your own). Never straying from one place for your entire life is a great way to cultivate the attitude that the only "real" culture is the one th