Originally Posted by
Oneworld_Flyer
As a major Undergraduate research assignment I'm doing for a significant proportion of my credit, I'm researching the Psychology behind and resultant Cultural and Personal Significance of Travel. It's hard to find a group of experienced, and knowledgable travellers anywhere worldwide, but if anybody is willing to help me out immeasurably by filling out the survey below, that'd be fantastic.
You know, it'd probably be better if you set up some WWW-page with a questionaire form to fill in, than to go with a free-form fill like this (which will be hard to do some real statistics on anyways).
Also, I feel that the questionaire is not really targeted correctly: there's a lot of "do you prefer" and "do you plan", which is not always true when you travel for business: you go where your work takes you, talk to people as your work requires and in general make the best of it.
In other words, I permit myself to question how much you will be able to conclude based on these questions.
But, for the fun of it, I'll try to answer anyways...might be fun to see how other people think about travels.
This is open to everybody worldwide, not at all culturally specific. I'm personally Australian (Sydney) based. Here goes;
(feel free to write as much or as little as you'd like)
What age bracket are you?
Under 18 ™ 18 to 25 ™ 25 to 39 ™ 39 to 65 ™ Over 65 ™
25-39
At what age did you begin travelling,
~18
and have you been doing so regularly since?
yes
What is your ethno-cultural background,
Scandinavian. Probably dates back to the Vikings.
and what language(s) other than English do you speak?
Arrogance, on an intl. traveller forum, to assume that everybody speaks English or has that as native language
English, French, German, Swedish, Danish, elements of Japanese.
How many international trips have you taken in your life?
I'm expecting not to be the only one unable to give you an answer to this, but a conservative guess is ~500.
Of these, how many times have you returned to the same country, and which country(ies) were they?
There are many countries that I visit over and over again: Japan, Korea, UK, USA, Canada, Germany, Sweden, France, Denmark, Italy, Portugal are the most frequent, but there are few places where I have been only once.
Do you have a ‘favourite destination’, or multiples thereof?
Japan is always nice. Not sure if it is a favourite, there are many places I like.
What has incited a desire to return to these places?
Since I travel 99.9999999% for work, the incitement has been "there's been business to do there".
Do you travel mainly for business, pleasure, or a combination of the two?
Mainly for business. Take maybe 1 trip every year or two years for "fun", the rest would be business.
When travelling overseas, do you;
Travel alone, with a partner or as part of a group?
Travel with a tour guide? If so, what benefits do they bring to your experience?
For work, I Travel alone, mostly.
When I go for fun, I bring the SO. And we shy away from any group-things.
Make your arrangements yourself, or allow a travel agent to do so?
For business-travel, my wonderful secretary does a great job at the planning and arrangements business.
For personal travel, I make arrangements myself.
Set a schedule that you adhere to whilst in a destination? As a proportion, how much time does this plan account for whilst away?
Since I travel for business, I always have a strict schedule prior to departing. Which, of course, I stick to -- absent any unexpected events.
And that schedule accounts for 200% of the time while traveling.
Make effort to learn at least some phrases and words of a local language?
Yes.
Feel comfortable to communicate verbally and/or non-verbally with locals?
Yes, least I couldn't do my job.
Least I couldn't do my job.
Prefer to be able to speak English?
No, English is a 3rd language to me.
Prefer travelling to English-speaking destinations?
No.
Prefer travelling to destinations in the Western world, such as the USA and UK, or elsewhere?
I go where work takes me, and make the best of it.
Have any preference in travelling to a city, a town, a village or to an isolated area? Which do you do most frequently?
Again, preference is not a question when you travel for work.
Have you ever regretted taking a trip? If so, why?
Yes -- when I didn't get the job done that I went to do.
Has a destination ever disappointed you? If so, for what reasons?
Yes. Infrastructure.
What are your major motivations for taking an overseas trip?
Work. -- again, this is a question that's moot to most business travellers.
What would you consider to be ‘culture’, ie. Where is culture represented?
Everywhere: from social relations in the street and workplace, in the way one deals with colleagues and clients, in art, science, food, architecture, advertisement, TV programming, religion, music, .....
What cultural experiences have you had whilst travelling, if any?
Plenty - too many to mention. Many of my collaborators appreciate when taking part in their everyday extra-bussinis activities, from going to their favourite watering hole, to accepting an invitation to a cultural event (theatre, retreat to a religious place, ...) -- and I appreciate the experience.
Having an open and curious mind is all it takes.
Many thanks in advance!
N.B. Specific answers are not published; only trends and correlations. (Strictly numerical & broadly stated results)
Well, in as much as the answers are here, they are published - you did not give any other way to answer than on the forum....but I don't mind, it might be fun to see what other FTers thing.