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The Essential: The Why Factor: Why do we travel?

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The Why Factor - Travel Essential

12/08/2015

The Why Factor: Why do we travel?

BBC World Service - The Essential, The Why Factor: Why do we travel?

Mike Williams asks why do we leave the comfort of our homes to go travel?

Why do we travel? Science shows that it really does broaden the mind, but Mike Williams hears we also travel to re-invent ourselves, see how others live, and acquire memories.

Mike Williams asks why do we travel?  Why do we leave the comforts of our homes to go to other places? 
Psychology has shown that travel - even just thinking about other countries -  broadens our minds and makes us more creative.  But we travel for many reasons, from acquiring memories, to seeing how other people live, even to build or re-invent our identities. And then there are those, like P. J. O’Rourke, who claim to hate travelling and prefer to stay home. Though it turns out he actually likes tourism, just not tourists.  
Mike also talks to South African travel writer Sihle Kuhmalo, Stanford Travel bookshop senior buyer David Montero, and psychologist Corinne Usher. 

Produced by Arlene Gregorius

(Photo: An international traveller arrives at an airport. Credit: David McNew/Getty Images)

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