Before reading Rick Steves’s Travel as a Political Act, my understanding of travel was to “view the world,” aka go to all the really cool tourist spots and only understand the isolated culture of my chosen destination. But after reading only the introduction and the first chapter of this novel, I now understand that my idea of “travel” isn’t necessarily wrong; but if I really wanted to fulfill my goal of “viewing the world,” I would have to venture out of my comfort zone and go to destinations other than popular tourist regions. One cannot truly experience another region’s culture by staying in a confined resort intended to cater to the lifestyle they can find back home. In order for me to really view the world through travel, I would have to experience a region’s real culture, meaning traveling away from the resorts and into the little towns that have been around for years, speak with the locals, and really embrace the true identity of the region through the eyes of the people who live there.
In all honesty, I never really thought of travel as being a political act; and if you were to ask me this before reading Steves’s novel, I would have probably told you that traveling as a political act is when a political leader goes to another country to meet with another political leader and discuss world issues over a fancy dinner. Now, with my ignorance of this issue behind me, I can now tell you that anyone can travel as a political act. By learning to appreciate the true culture of the region, one can start to view world issues from a different perspective; that of the native. Even if you listen to the world views of those who live in different regions, regardless if you agree or disagree, you’re traveling as a political act. It is not just for world leaders or politicians, anyone who travels is capable of doing it. If everyone who travels was to do it in terms of learning the world views of those who live in the region of chosen destination, we would live in a more understanding, humble world.
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