[chewz]

This is a cliche about traveling. Most young people that I have seen traveling in Thailand or Bali do not seem like improving themselves.

Only few are genuinely interested in the world around them.

Of course we will need some data to support my point :-)

[hombre_fatal]

> Most young people that I have seen traveling in Thailand or Bali do not seem like improving themselves.

How do you know? The benefits of travel don't come instantly like some binary "travel" door you walk through. Travel sculpts your character over time in small ways and small interactions. And why would it need to be an active self-improvement process? On of the beauties of travel is how passive the a-ha moments are, you just have to pull the trigger to go in the first place which many people cannot even do beyond a "someday I'll go" dream they carry to their grave.

[onion2k]

Of course we will need some data to support my point

Does hundreds of years of travel writing and tens of thousands of biographies of people who travelled before going on to do amazing things count?

[chewz]

Tens of thousands? There is some 5 milion tourists pers year to Bali and 35 milion to Thailand. Not to mention other destinations. So tens of thousands of biographies (if there is really such a number) is just an rounding error.

So I guess here is your answer.

What I simply meant is that travelling for most people is just a form of leisure not a life enhancing experience.

[onion2k]

I don't agree. Very few people do anything significant enough to warrant a book about their life, but everyone who travels lives a better life afterward.

tens of thousands of biographies (if there is really such a number)

There's more than 80,000 in the biography section of Amazon, and that only includes the ones in print right now.

[chewz]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20530350