Sharing moments with those we love most will be our priority in 2021
I am often asked: Where are you going this summer? Being a travel journalist, the question makes sense. Between March 2019 and 2020, I estimate that I would visit about 70? different places, most of them very far from home. And that with a baby less than two years old; Normally, there would have been many more. It's my job, yes, but also a small addiction: as soon as I feel the pleasant weightlessness of the plane, as soon as I set foot in the hotel, I'm already planning the next adventure.
However, let's go back to the present, to last Friday, when a friend, with her son in one hand and her beer in the other, asked me about my vacation plans. Well, the reality is that, like most, I don't make those kinds of plans anymore. I live in the present, wasn't that what it was all about? But, if I could go, I don't need anything exotic.
It's more, for the first time, instead of 'conquering' new territories, I would like to return to a place where I was happy : a small bed&breakfast in the south of France where you wake up to the smell of fresh bread and freshly baked croissants, laze around with the cats during the day, help make applesauce, watch the sun set over the fields of sunflower and dining under the stars in good company, that of the excellent hosts Brigitte and Bruno and the travelers who stop there to spend the night and share the wine. Oh, and most importantly: I want to take my in-laws with me, because, if we have realized anything in this time, it is the importance of sharing our lives with those we love most.
THE YEAR WE GOT OVER FOMO
In 2017, I wrote an article: You are traveling "badly" and you don't know it. It was the time of catch a plane on Friday afternoon after work, rush through some European capital and return, exhausted, on Sunday night , trying to get some rest before the dreaded Monday. We couldn't miss anything: we lived in a constant state of turmoil, between plans, escapades and events that were chained, which I say chained, that overlapped! We asked ourselves: Why am I exhausted if I'm only 30 years old? It was his fault FOMO , that is to say, from Fear Of Missing Out, an acronym that defines being continually overwhelmed because we feel that the rest are having a better time or are doing more and more interesting things than us.
This beautiful French village, Les Pesques, is where I want to return
Fast forward to four years later and what concerns us is not being able to make a single plan . Okay, 21st century, that wasn't what we wanted either. But perhaps we are at a good moment to find the middle point, to choose the plans and trips that are really worth it instead of letting ourselves be carried away by the spiral of what-is-in-fashion, of what-you-can't-miss.
Says the writer Megan Spurrell in the article Why Saying "No" Can Make Travel More Rewarding , from Condé Nast Traveler USA: "Travel culture has long been about going the extra mile, even taking risks. We're chasing the adrenaline rush of jumping out of planes or riding the back of a stranger's motorcycle. It can even mean something as small as trying a plate of hard-to-identify foods despite being a picky eater. The term isn't used as much anymore, but we're talking about the YOLO effect , from the pressure of your peers to always say 'yes'".
The acronym to which Spurrell refers corresponds to You Only Live Once', "you only live once" , an expression that implies that one should enjoy life, even if that means stepping out of the hackneyed comfort zone. For Spurrell, the pandemic situation has been a turning point in deciding say no to much of what is supposed to be done, instead choosing plans that you feel really nurture you . "When the world opens up again and I have the luxury of stressing over the mundane, I plan to carry that lesson into the way I travel. I'm going to be more picky about which group tours I join (maybe I'd rather go with a friend to Santa Fe, than being with eight people with whom I have not been in contact for a long time). I will be selective about the weddings and other obligations that I travel for , with my vacation days, which are limited, and with my savings, which are also limited".
GO BACK WHERE WE WERE HAPPY
At the end of January, the Airbnb accommodation rental platform released a study with the title: 2021 will be the year of meaningful travel . Taking a representative sample of the adult US population, the company reached several conclusions that seem set to become a trend: "When travel returns in 2021, people prefer to connect with their loved ones through more personal trips, and mass tourism is unlikely to return at any scale this year (...) The priority in short-term travel is spending time with relatives and friends in comfortable, familiar, and safe settings".
Spending time with friends and family has become the priority
And he continues to delve into this concept: “Once people feel safe to travel, they will. But it will be different than before the pandemic. Travel will be seen as an antidote to isolation and disconnection . People do not miss the most famous monuments, the crowded transport, the queues and the halls full of tourists. Mass travel is actually a different form of isolation : You are anonymous, you are surrounded by other travelers and you never really experience the people and culture of a community. What people are looking for in travel now is what they have been deprived of: spend meaningful time with your family and friends".
My desire to return as a family to that charming bed & breakfast, where it is possible to really connect with others in a safe and comfortable environment, is therefore not at all strange. In fact, it is quite common around us: "I want to go see my relatives, my scattered friends, the places where I have already been happy. For some reason that escapes me, the desire to discover new places is in the background : my priority is to recover what filled me", explains Paula, communicator. " I want to go around the world, but to visit all the friends that I have scattered around the globe: New Zealand, the United States, Asia... It's the only thing I feel like right now: getting involved in their day-to-day, recovering moments with them and live, for a few days, in its most special places ", says Elena Ortega, collaborator of Traveler.es.
"I would like to go back to the city where I was on Erasmus, Aarhus. Also, I want to go to Mexico as soon as possible. I have had it pending for a long time and I think I have thought about it and looked at it so much in 2020 I can now go without Google Maps. Also, I want to go to Bologna, because it was my trip for Easter 2020 and they canceled it. I just bought it for a bit - it was cheap - but now I really want it. And I want to finally go to Mallorca with my mother," says Naiara, a journalist.
Bologna, a destination that, like so many, remained in the pipeline in 2020
María Sanz, from the Traveler.es newsroom, also dreams of returning to her beloved places: "What I want is to go back to places that I'm missing. It's what my body asks of me the most, more than going to new places. I don't know if it's because we have already had enough surprise and departure from comfort zone in recent months ... I really want to return to my father's village , Hontangas, and to go for a walk around Aranda de Duero. If it could already be with the Sonorama festival, I would feel the maximum happiness. I would go back to Puerto de Sagunto right away, I spent the whole summer there and I really miss being in a part of the promenade, the area that connects Puerto de Sagunto with Canet, where, when it gets dark, the stones have a tone like pink . Those same stones are my mobile wallpaper," she says.
FAMILY AND FRIENDS, THE MOST IMPORTANT THING
Stepping on the land of our fathers is also a discourse that is repeated a lot. Iria, manager, says: "I'm going to go to the octopus fair in the town of Madre, to dress up. By the way, we go to the village where she was born , which is uninhabited, but the house is still standing". It is not the only one that will unite the local with the emotional: 63% of the Condé Nast Traveler Club community prefers use this year's vacation to travel within your own country , while 21% aim to spend more time with family and friends.
There are, of course, those who, as Naiara anticipated, want resume the trips you couldn't do in 2020 . This is the case of José Manuel, an administrative officer: "I just want to be able to do married year trip that the pandemic (and a positive contact with Covid) ruined it. Return to our particular Caribbean: Fuerteventura out of season".
Sara, for her part, also wants to make up for 'lost' time: " We had planned a 2020 touring Spain and merging two things that our family loves: traveling and sports . We already had a fairly well-planned agenda which included varied tests and destinations throughout Spain. Family trips predominated, but there were also friends with the same purpose, "he says. I I want to see that sparkle in my husband's eyes again . To see again those nerves and that emotion of my son asking me where we are going and seeing his father enter the finish line. I want to soak up the stories of every corner, get drunk on new smells, not even want to blink. Fate itself doesn't matter to me. What I want is to (re)live all that".
Fuerteventura out of season, a nearby paradise
TRAVEL WITH MEANING
Even the New York Times has echoed this trend that favors 'internal' trips, those that connect with what we feel, over 'external' ones, those that we enjoy on a more superficial level, those that we do because ' touch'. Thus, also at the end of January, he published an article under the title: Travel with purpose: for some, a resolution of 2021 : "The crises of 2020, in particular the pandemic and the murders of black Americans, have caused many travelers to rethink how and where to travel. Instead of taking trips to luxury spas or sun and fun cruises, many are looking to give more meaning to their future plans, whether it's through a personal challenge like long-distance biking, exploring their heritage, or reaching a goal they've always wanted to accomplish, like visiting all 50 states."
The text collects the case of John Shackelford, who, after the recent murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other African Americans at the hands of the police , he decided to travel with a group of friends almost 2,000 kilometers, from Mobile, Alabama, to Washington, DC, visiting places associated with African-American history. So do statistics from socially-driven travel agencies like family-focused Hands Up Holidays, which says bookings for trips more than six months in advance are two-and-a-half times higher now than they were in January 2020. Restoring houses in New Orleans is his most popular plan.
"The pandemic has given our world the opportunity to look both inward and towards tourism, which is a catalyst for personal growth and awareness for oneself and others," Jake Haupert, co-founder of the organization, explained to the publication. Transformational Travel Council. It focuses on planning more sustainable and purposeful travel. " I think we're seeing an awakening of values-driven travel ", he continued.
"We always say that we have to take advantage of life to do everything we feel like doing, but until something serious happens, we don't take the step ", summarizes the journalist Elena Ortega. "During the pandemic, the same thing has happened, above all, the first days, but then, we end up forgetting them to really enjoy what we love most . That's what I want most: to travel and be with my special people . I'm saving so I don't forget my purpose. I hope to get it."