I don't know why, but I really l really love continental bars late at
night. It may be the warm summer night air, or it could be the sassy barmaids,
but whatever, there is something about it all that draws me back year
after year.
Well it did, but lets be honest here, international travel is getting to be more of a pain in the ass with each passing year ... concerns about Islamic terrorists, usually travelling on the same passports as you and I, has produced ever bigger security queues, and illegal immigrants have not helped other queues, such as at Calais.
So I can't help wondering if international travel may once again become solely the preserve of the rich or the well connected. In the 1920's and 1930's, travel abroad was restricted almost entirely to the very wealthy (lords, financiers, politicians, and movie stars), with the poor only travelling as emigrants, or soldiers to colonial lands. We have seen a revolution in mass air transit since the 1960's, with new destinations and better planes, which have opened an entire generation up to international travel.
But it's evident to me that, not only is air travel becoming entirely more unpleasant, but that some areas of the world that had started to open up as destinations, are now closing again, and that we may be at the start of a long retreat in the number of popular mass travel locations available. For instance many Arab lands, that once had great potential, such as Syria and Libya, and even Egypt, are, or may soon become no go areas, while it is now increasingly unsafe for western tourists in much of the third world, including the long haul destinations, such as parts of South America, Central America, central Africa, Southern Asia and even Thailand.
Its hard to see this trend reversing anytime soon, as we are apparently entering an era of idealogical and religious conflicts in much of the globe. Still it is a strange idea that you and I might be one of the last generations to have most of the world open up for our inspection, only then to see it close down again .... we in Europe may, like most of the US travellers who stay in North America, restrict ourselves to just Europe or even just parts of Europe in the future.
Well it did, but lets be honest here, international travel is getting to be more of a pain in the ass with each passing year ... concerns about Islamic terrorists, usually travelling on the same passports as you and I, has produced ever bigger security queues, and illegal immigrants have not helped other queues, such as at Calais.
So I can't help wondering if international travel may once again become solely the preserve of the rich or the well connected. In the 1920's and 1930's, travel abroad was restricted almost entirely to the very wealthy (lords, financiers, politicians, and movie stars), with the poor only travelling as emigrants, or soldiers to colonial lands. We have seen a revolution in mass air transit since the 1960's, with new destinations and better planes, which have opened an entire generation up to international travel.
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| Travel As It Used To Be .... And May Be Again |
But it's evident to me that, not only is air travel becoming entirely more unpleasant, but that some areas of the world that had started to open up as destinations, are now closing again, and that we may be at the start of a long retreat in the number of popular mass travel locations available. For instance many Arab lands, that once had great potential, such as Syria and Libya, and even Egypt, are, or may soon become no go areas, while it is now increasingly unsafe for western tourists in much of the third world, including the long haul destinations, such as parts of South America, Central America, central Africa, Southern Asia and even Thailand.
Its hard to see this trend reversing anytime soon, as we are apparently entering an era of idealogical and religious conflicts in much of the globe. Still it is a strange idea that you and I might be one of the last generations to have most of the world open up for our inspection, only then to see it close down again .... we in Europe may, like most of the US travellers who stay in North America, restrict ourselves to just Europe or even just parts of Europe in the future.
Perhaps the new tourism will be online in the form of Streetview, or more interactively with the use of drones before a precursor of the Matrix allows us to virtually explore our planet (if we're not already there!). In any case, from an environmental point of view less frivolous gallivanting around the planet can't be a bad thing.
ReplyDelete"It's a small world but I wouldn't like to paint it." [Steven Wright]
Sorry Vroomfondel, but a virtual foreign bar is no use to me ..... each to his own in the new world order LOL
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