Why do Australians travel overseas more than Americans?

https://www.quora.com/Why-do-Australians-travel-overseas-more-than-Americans

Jules:

Even though we have lots to see in Australia, from alpine to rainforest (temperate and tropical), desert, cities, towns, country and many interesting geological features, as anyone who has actually travelled widely in Australia (got out of the cities) would actually know, it is true we do travel more than Americans. Why, in America, only a few kms from the Canadian border I was shocked to have a conversation with a young adult who had never been to Canada. “Too difficult,” she told me, someone who had just flown from Australia, crossed across the North American continent to Maine and then crossed the border to Canada. At her age I had backpacked around Europe, staying in youth hostels and similar (not all at the standard of YHAs) and because I was not flush with money, sometimes slept on overnight trains and floors of ferries to save the cost of accommodation. I ate out of supermarkets too, as I couldn’t afford to go to restaurants. I took a bicycle with me to further reduce the cost of travel and cycled from place to place. So, especially when young, it is not necessary to have lots of money to travel. But still many Americans don’t travel. It is true only two weeks leave is a big handicap, but some people give up their jobs to travel and go on working holidays, so ways to travel can be found.

I also think it is that Australians are not as inward looking as many Americans. Our news programmes are full of news from overseas, so we are more aware of a world beyond our borders. When I was in America I was very aware of how American and inward looking the American news was. I heard very little beyond America. This would make (and it does appear it has) many Americans less aware of the wider world and so think less of what they don’t hear about, and as a result be less likely to consider visiting other places in the world.

Of course in all countries there are people who have rarely travelled, but this seemed much more common to me in America.

50% to 70% of Australians hold passports; about double what Americans hold.

I have also heard the argument that there is a ‘wanderlust gene’, which apparently occurs in about 20 per cent of the human population. It affects dopamine levels in the brain. But this is unsettled science. Still an interesting thought, for could some populations have more of such a gene, if it does exist? Many of the early settlers to America arrived not because of a necessary desire to travel, but to escape religious persecution. (Another argument maybe for, but for another time, of why Americans are much more religious than Australians.) With the exception of the convicts (which with the big wave of immigration which followed only a small percentage), immigrants who came to Australia chose to travel here…a long way, initially a trip of over three months. But then in regards to convicts, I read apparently this gene increases risky behaviour, so perhaps the behaviour that resulted in these people being convicts, was this gene. An interesting question.

Read more: There's a scientific reason why some of us love to travel

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Ailsa Turrell:

Originally Answered: Why are Australians more likely to visit faraway continents than Americans?

I think Australians are generally more adventurous. I remember in Greece talking to two American women in their 30s who had only dared to make the trip because they had been guaranteed that they could pay for everything in US$ and would never have to deal with foreign money - I cannot imagine that happening in Australia. Many Australians are second and third generation migrants and that also makes many want to see where their ancestors came from.

Aj. Raymond James Ritchie:

Originally Answered: Why are Australians more likely to visit faraway continents than Americans?

I have worked in UK, USA, Canada and SE-Asia. One of the cultural mistakes an Australian (student, academic, tourist or politician) can make in the USA is to casually invite Americans to visit Australia. The reaction will be astonishment at the absurdity of the suggestion and you are likely to get sarcastic remarks.

I worked in the USA as a post-doctoral for 5y and quickly learned not to. Do not do it.

Ken Johnson:

Originally Answered: Do Australians travel overseas more frequently than Americans?

Yes. Australian employees receive 4 weeks annual leave each year, and after 10 years service with an employer, long Service Leave. We’re a migrant country - many of us have ties to Europe, Asia, Middle East etc, so naturally they go back to visit family and friends in what might be described as “the old world”. I understand Americans don’t get anything near the amount of leave provisions as their Aussie counterparts.

Paul Clifford:

Originally Answered: Why are Australians more likely to visit faraway continents than Americans?

Why are Australians more likely to visit faraway continents than Americans?

The average Australian worke gets significantly more paid annual leave than their USA counterparts, and also are paid significantly more in salaries and wages (even at minimum wage) than the typical USA worker. Additionally, due to the high volume of overseas travel to Asia & Europe from Australia, airfares are cheap.

A minor factor is Australia is a vast land, almost the same size as mainland China, so Australians are use to travelling vast distances. It is also in many cases cheaper to fly overseas than to fly within Australia, and Asian travel (accommodation, food etc) is significantly cheaper (European travel in my experience is about the same.

Michael Gardner:

Originally Answered: Why are Australians more likely to visit faraway continents than Americans?

Because, being better educated, Australians are able to point out these faraway continents on a map of the world, as opposed the 30% of Americans (National Geographic Survey) who can’t even pick out the USA.

Mark Aardvark:

First, we know that there is a thing that exists outside of our own country.

Also, we know that thing (The Rest of the World™) has valuable things to offer, beyond oil.

Many Americans prefer to live complacently in their own little bubble of egotistical self-satisfaction.

But I could be wrong.

Stephanie V:

Originally Answered: Do Australians travel overseas more frequently than Americans?

I think it’s likely that they would, because literally *any* international travel is “overseas” for them.

Americans can drive (or fly or take a bus) to Canada or Mexico, and many do. If an Australian wants to travel internationally, “overseas” is the only way for them to do it.

Ajay Verma:

Originally Answered: Do Australians travel overseas more frequently than Americans?

Australians have been known to travel overseas more frequently and for longer periods of time compared to Americans. This may be due to geographical proximity to popular tourist destinations such as Asia and the Pacific Islands, as well as a cultural emphasis on travel and exploration. However, Americans are still known to be avid travelers, with many visiting popular destinations such as Europe, South America, and Asia.

Adela Hogarth:

Originally Answered: Why are Australians more likely to visit faraway continents than Americans?

Because the average Australian isn’t told to work 16 hours a day to afford rent and replacement apparel.

Let’s be realistic, here.

Travel is a luxury of both money and time. If you can afford it, you do it. If you can’t, then you don’t.

As someone who grew up working class in rural NSW, my idea of ‘travel’ was saving up a third of the money I was earning through after school and weekend work from the age of eleven to afford a good motorcycle by the time I was 16.

I had travelled to places like the Philippines and the UK prior then only because one half of my family lived there (mum’s in the Philippines, dad’s in England and Wales) and thus I didn’t have to spend money on things like accommodation.

It was certainly a different experience for the wealthier schoolmates who routinely flitted about East and Southeast Asia, or Europe, or North America.

Travel is a luxury, and depending on specific societies, the reality of it as a lived experience is variable.

Andrew Francis:

Originally Answered: Why are Australians more likely to visit faraway continents than Americans?

I think there’s a couple of reasons — We’re keenly aware of our geographic isolation in the world. Stuck away down the bottom of maps. Many Australians want to see what else there is to the world. The other reason is that we don’t have the hubris (many) Americans seem to have. We don’t imagine for a minute that everything worth seeing is in Australia, so we travel to experience what the rest of the world has to offer.

Lynne Clarke:

It’s kind of an unwritten tradition that many end of schoolers, if they can, want to do a gap year before heading to university or college.

Murali Tumahai:

Originally Answered: Why are Australians more likely to visit faraway continents than Americans?

It’s a combination of less variety in Australia compared to the variety found domestically for us Americans, along with dipping into our very nearby neighbors (I’m American, and have lived in Australia for over a decade - I have a fair grasp of what can be found in each location), and island fever.

Admittedly, it’s a very, very large island, but island fever nonetheless. I live on an island chain (Hawaii), and while we are literally in Paradise, that sense of being trapped is pretty real. You just start thinking and thinking of ANYWHERE to go to get off of the island.

As for variety - yes, Australia has Alice Springs, and the Whitsundays, down through Sydney, into the interior Outback, and on through Melbourne - but you have nothing like going from Alaska, through Kansas, and Portland, swinging by French New Orleans, dropping by Cuban Florida, New York, Sante Fe, LA, and ending up in Hawaii. We don’t even have the same local languages in some of these places. Australia has variety, but nothing like the US.

So when we are looking at our limited time schedules, and looking at ticket prices; and then trying to get the most bang out of it, we very frequently just do a road trip, or a 3 hour $150 ticket, to a closer location - and in the US, that still means domestic, usually.

CjW:

Strange comparison and a poor assumption. Seriously? America has a population of more than 300 million people and a large GDP! About 30 million of those people are quite wealthy.

Americans are the second most traveled people in the world after the Finns.

The third most traveled nationality in the world are Swiss followed by (4) Danes (5) Nords (6) Chinese (7) New Zealanders (8) Canadians (9) Australians.

Like Olympic success, it's a combination of wealth (distribution of wealth) and size.

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Niels Henriksen:

Because they are generally wise, cultured and well educated people with an attention span longer than 10 seconds - and they are always warmly welcome everywhere they go here in Europe ( within reason 😉) for instance, because they are great and down to earth mates, who are genuinely interested in us and don't feel the urge to constantly brag about how much freeer and better they are at everything than everybody else in the World 😉

Chris Gallagher:

I don't know but would think Aussies travel a lot. My daughter and her girlfriends spent six months travelling around Europe last year and added a month in Bali on the way home. This is not unusual for a lot of Australians. I am sixty eight and have lived and worked in various Asian countries.