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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