Venturello

Lived in Laurel, MS. Small town deep south. Majority of my school mates, and their families, had not travelled out of state. A good portion of them not much farther than sorrounding counties. And I mean, Majority, like maybe 90%. I was a seasoned traveller for them at that time!

Its the way the world is, the way people are - they conform to their life. Not a US thing, as mentioned in the thread - I've found this to be so also in rural Spain. And not a matter of wealth - its a matter of culture.

BearX220

Absolutely false. According to "The Plane Truth: Airline Crashes, the Media, and Transportation Policy," a 2003 book by Brookings Institution analysts Roger W. Cobb and David M. Primo, by 1997 80% of the American population had taken at least one commercial flight in their lifetime.

In the year 1978, 25% of all Americans got on a commercial airliner; in the year 1997, 40% of all Americans flew. In the year 1978, 65% of all Americans had boarded a commercial flight at least once; by 1997 it was 80%.

Further, there is a widely quoted statistic from The Walt Disney Company stating that 70 percent of all Americans have visited either Disneyland or Walt Disney World.

So while FTers represent a privileged extreme of the traveling public, Americans are nowhere near as sedentary, on average, as indicated in this thread.

As for your assertion that only 30% of Americans hold a passport, The Economist said in an August 25, 2005 piece on American-Canadian border crossings that 34% of Americans over 18 hold one.

Let's use facts.

fallinasleep

Personally, I don't care that people haven't traveled much or at all, just as I don't think any more highly of some college student who has traveled a lot. What does it really matter? There is always someone smarter, funnier, better looking, richer, and better traveled. Doesn't make them necessarily happier.

Anyway, problem is I don't believe these "facts." There is a very good regular column in the WSJ about how statistics are used loosely all the time, most of all by politicians, without any real basis.

I have a hard time believing that 80% of Americans have taken a commercial flight, and I don't believe that 70% of Americans have visited one of the Disney properties, although at some point these figures may become reality as/if poverty levels decline. I am more inclined to believe that a billion or two people watch the Football World Cup every four years.

GUWonder

In India, the same demographic (of poor, living hand to mouth, minority) is far more likely to have traveled further at least within their own country (or even internationally). Poverty and insularity don't go hand in hand in many parts of the world. For many of the poor, travel is something they do for work and to make a living and that idea is instilled into such folks from an early age. The idea of travel as something leisure-related is not completely understood by such persons.

In many parts of the US, on the other hand, the number of people who have travelled beyond their county, state or country would be far less than it is if not for the military. In some midwestern states, people of the WW2 generation are more likely to have been overseas than even their wealthier offspring -- courtesy of the military and/or immigration patterns.

GUWonder

Those "facts" are not reflective of the facts for those states for which Chicago is the main regional passport office.

34% of Americans (as in residents), perhaps. 34% of American citizens in the upper midwest. No way.

Dovster

Not at all surprising. I lived in Yardley for a number of years. Why go to Broadway when you have the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope?

Why go shopping on Fifth Avenue when all those stores have outlets in Lower Bucks malls?

Why eat ice cream anywhere else in the world when you can get it at Goodnoe's in Newtown?

And why would anybody, ever, drive to see the Giants or Jets play football when the Eagles are right nearby?

You live in paradise -- enjoy it. (I only wish I could join you for a cheesesteak sandwich sold off of a van parked on a Philly street corner.)

magexpect

I agree with you. Disney World has no way to know what nationality their customers have or for that matter who went only once and who 10 times.
The same for airlines. Maybe within the next years will it be possible for airlines to know how many Americans have travelled, thanks to the new ID requirements for boarding.

BearX220

Well, the world is divided into people who do research... and people who believe things because their guts tell them to. I haven't seen anyone else here cite any genuine research, just belief. So... believe what you want.

HotelFlyer

This reminds me of a staff Christmas party in PEI (held in January - oh the joys of working in the biz!). A couple won a trip to Halifax NS, the woman cried - out of fear. She was so scared of going to the "big city". WOW

dankyone

I would think there is a strong positive correlation in any country between income/net worth and propensity to travel, but of course there are some people who are very well off and simply choose not to go anywhere for a variety of reasons.

Admittedly a WAG (even though most people I know are jetting off all over the place constantly) I would bet less than 50% of the American public has ever been on a plane.

In terms of Europe, I have spent considerable time in Ireland and Spain. My sense is that about 5-10% of the population of those countries are frequent international travellers and have been everywhere and seen everything in Europe. About 30% have been on a handful of trips abroad in their lives, usually to somewhere nearby. The rest have made one or two trips to their nation's capital and consider this a foreign land!

Dovster

I think that Israel is in a completely different situation and that most of its citizens have travelled abroad at least once.

To start with, it is a claustrophobic little country -- about the same size as New Jersey. Secondly, many Israelis have relatives in other countries. Lastly, most high schools sponsor a trip to Poland for their students to learn about the Holocaust.

There is also a tradition here that after getting out of the Army, young people take a long trip abroad -- generally to Third World countries in Africa, Asia, and South America.

Jenbel

I'd say in the UK, it's quite unusual these days to find someone who hasn't travelled internationally at least once - the availability of cheap package holidays to the Mediterranean mean that most people have made it at least once, and there is a substantial proportion who considers at least one foreign holiday a year a normal part of life.

Personally, i blame the UK weather

Flaflyer

"As for your assertion that only 30% of Americans hold a passport, The Economist said in an August 25, 2005 piece on American-Canadian border crossings that 34% of Americans over 18 hold one."


Recently a coworker and i were musing over "What % of Americans have a passport?"

A little googleing showed that until recently less than 30% had passports. The US PP Office is processing several million more passports this year then it did only a few years ago, spurd on as people find out about the Dec 31 Caribbean rules about their cruise ship plans.

Until recently it was under 30%, currently it is slightly over 30%. 30% is a good whole number average I used.

Flaflyer

[QUOTE=BearX220]Absolutely false. According to "The Plane Truth: Airline Crashes, the Media, and Transportation Policy," a 2003 book by Brookings Institution analysts Roger W. Cobb and David M. Primo, by 1997 80% of the American population had taken at least one commercial flight in their lifetime.

This is what the nationalatlas.gov claims, too: "The growing pervasiveness of air travel can be seen by the increasing numbers of people who have flown on a commercial jet: less than 50 percent in 1975 compared with more than 80 percent today."

I believe it is not as high as 80%, but who are we in FT to ever question anything our Goverment says and does? Why, we don't even question TSA!

hfly

Judging from some of the OP's recent posts, it would sem that he is actually the one who is best suited to answer his own question!