Why the Americans Overseas Travel

Why the Americans Overseas Travel -

We have all heard the alarming statistic-only 15% of Americans have passports. ( 2014 Update:. This number is about 36% now, compared to about 70% of Britons and Australians )

This number is increasing, but only because Americans are now required to show a passport when going to Mexico and Canada. Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was first last year their passport and has only traveled overseas to military bases in Iraq and Germany. indicated In fact, they that traveling for the rich is: "I am not one of those that may come from a background, you know, children who receive maybe college graduate and their parents give them a pass and give 'em walk a backpack and say and travel around the world. Noooo. I worked all my life ... I was not, uh, some, I think the culture. "

So, why is that the superpower in the world, a country with 300 million people, will turn a blind eye to tout the rest of the planet, and political figures for their lack of trips abroad as a plus? I think there are a few reasons:

First, there is size Forget post-9/11 policy for a moment .. Most family holiday in America to other parts of America. Why? Because the US the width (and much of the height) occupies an entire continent, and we have all the world environments in our countries. Need beaches? Head to Florida. The tropics? Hawaii. Desert? Arizona. Cold Tundra? Alaska. Temperate forests? Washington. This view of America have everything you need is best done by an answer I summed got from a friend in Iowa:?. "Why would you want to go to Thailand, it is far and scary If you want the beaches, only to go to Florida. "the Americans just do not see the need to go somewhere else if they do everything in their own country, especially if they are afraid of the world.

What about my second point- brings me fear . Americans are afraid just in the world. I mean, really afraid. Maybe even petrified. In this post-9/11 world, Americans have been taught that the world is a big, frightening place. There are terrorists outside every hotel waiting for you to kidnap. People do not like you because you are an American. The world is fierce. It's bad. It's dirty. It's wild. Canada and Europe are okay, but if you go there, they are still being rude to you because you are an American. Nobody likes us.

Even before 11:09 the media created an environment of fear. If it bleeds, it leads, is not it? 11:09 Before the violence played in the media at home and abroad. Images of riots in other streets, threats against the Americans and the general violence were all played a volatile and uncertain world to portray. After 9/11, it only got worse. Politicians tell us now "they hate you", as the former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani did during his campaign. It is we against them !!!

decades of believe this Bombed, Americans, this myth is reality, and do not want to rely on the States.

People always ask me why I want to leave the US to travel. Is not the US as well? "No one likes us out there" people say. To Americans, the world is a scary place, and there is a perception only reinforced by the media and politicians.

Finally, it is because of cultural ignorance . Yes, I said that Americans are ignorant. Ignorant as they just do not know what outside their own borders going on, not that they are stupid. I really do not blame them. If you're told the world is scary, why would you want to worry about him? Why would you want to go to places where they allegedly want to kill you?

So Americans an emphasis not placed on learning about the world. We do not assume any languages, we overseas to avoid programs, and we are not talking about our world in the schools. Our schools teach a foreign language: Spanish, and that's just because it's not because we want to go to Spain or Mexico right next door is a large Spanish-speaking population in the country. The media focus on the world not when it relates to something bad, and our leaders encourage us to build walls, not break through barriers.

Some people argue that because America "far" from the rest of the world as if it is an insurmountable distance places to get to go. However, New Zealand is geographically more of everything, more New Zealanders are encouraged to walk, and to explore the world. In the age of the Internet, Twitter, YouTube and airplanes, it's easy to go places. Distance is not an excuse.

Americans not to travel because of the culture, not located. Sure, it's not universal. There are many Americans out there to discover the world and break down cultural barriers. They come back to encourage dispel myths and their friends, to become the world. But even in the more liberal cities in America, look at the attitude that America is the only secure country in the world, and that most of the world is pretty scary. Americans have a picture of the world that is completely disconnected from reality.

The sad irony is that we we have the world of so much anxiety. America's push for a globalized world brought many players to the stage. It helped the Chinese dragon emerge from the cage, India brought into the game, helped Brazil's economy grow and Communism tore. Now, we look at the world and are afraid that we do not understand or our place in it. Instead of trying to learn more, we erect barriers and to bury our heads in the sand.

But I'm hopeful. The future of the world requires more integration and young Americans in this post-9/11 environment grow are actually more interested in learning about other countries as they avoid. You want to travel and explore the world. I think the future is bright, as long as the political leaders not completely cut ourselves off before then.

For more information on why Americans traveling not, here are a few items -up followed I wrote a few years after this:

• Why Americans still traveling overseas nOT
• Why do Americans enter before, Canadians are?

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