“Travel is less about the places, & more about the conversations & experiences.”- @spencerspellman |#smtravel11
That right up there is a “tweet.” Last week, I (and probably several hundred others) attended the Social Media Strategies for Travel Conference — via twitter. See, I wasn’t actually there. I couldn’t even have told you where it was taking place at the time (though I’ve since looked it up, and it was in San Fransisco). See, Casa Casa follows a lot of travel writer and industry types on twitter, and one morning I started to notice tweets with the hashtag #smtravel11. And suddenly, it was like I was there! Attendees were tweeting madly from the audience of panel discussions and presentations. And when someone said something particularly thoughtful or gripping, attendees would tweet it from their phones and laptops, instantly sharing it with the world. And lots and lots of people tweeted that quote above, from travel writer Spencer Spellman.
Even over the twitter on my iPhone, sitting in a West Seattle coffee shop 800 miles to the north, this quote resonated with me immediately, too. It’s not terribly profound, nor is it a radical idea. Yet it strikes a deep chord in the souls of many travelers. And the interesting thing is, it goes against the way that travel is often marketed to us; that travel is all about the destination.
Of course we are drawn to the places we travel to. That’s what gets us going, saving, and planning. But our experiences as travelers when we visit these places are enriched by the conversations and connections with the people we meet along the way. Sometimes, it’s the people that call these places home, and sometimes it’s people from other places who are travelers, too – folks we meet at a hostel or B&B, or eating alongside us at the market, or studying with us at the same language school.
I know this to be true in my own travel experiences, and it’s one of the reasons I started Casa Casa, which if you don’t know is a B&B-style hospitality exchange network with members in fourteen countries. When I find myself talking about Casa Casa with people who are not familiar with hospitality exchange or who do not have personal experiences with homestays while traveling, this is what I tell them. With Casa Casa, travel is about more than just your destination. This way of traveling is about connecting with other people, making new friends and learning about the world together.
“Travel is not just about where you’re going. It’s about who lives there,” I told travel writer Carol Pucci with the Seattle Times last year.
People want to connect with other people when they travel– it’s an important part of a traveler’s experience they take home with them.
For centuries, guesthouses have inexpensively put up travelers in homey, simple rooms. Hosts would share their personal knowledge of their home country or city with their guests over a cup of coffee or home-cooked breakfast.
And that’s just exactly how our members are traveling today. Casa Casa isn’t a new way to travel — it’s an ancient way to travel. But what is old is new again. It’s $20 to join. Give it a try.
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Hey Lauren,
Thanks for including my quote. I actually wasn’t there either
. Srini included it in his presentation on digital storytelling. That quote, which I mentioned in a blog post a few weeks ago, has continued to resonate with me. Not to take away from places, landmarks, and so on. But when I think about it, it’s the same reason that I’m drawn to going back to a restaurant, a bar, and so on. I have some type of experience that goes above and beyond others I’ve been to. Thus, I keep doing it. I think it’s the same think with travel. We want the conversations and experiences that come with it that just aren’t your every day experiences.
I’m actually writing a follow-up post on this in the next few days. So check back soon.