Traveling is a privilege, but do you know just how many travel privileges you can possess?
Let’s Unpack That is a travel education series where we process and unpack our baggage of social identities, issues, and travel privileges to understand how they impact our travel experiences. We will cover everything from conscious travel to voluntourism. In each post, we focus on a topic or social issue to dig deeper and reflect on our travel experiences. Whether in our own countries or abroad, understanding our impact can help us be more responsible and conscientious travelers.
By definition, a privilege is a particular advantage a population has over another. At this point, I do not think it is a secret that travel is a privilege. Yet, it is time we go more in-depth about how it is a privilege beyond the mere act of booking a trip. Complexities are occurring that we may not be fully conscious of on our adventures. Yes, travel privilege is about having the means to explore the world for leisure. However, our social identities affect our social location and inform the benefits we possess when we are, or are not, traveling. And there are many to unpack.
Let’s dig more into this topic.