What it means to be a good traveler | Eryn Gordon | TEDxAmoskeagMillyard

Quick Overview

Eryn Gordon argues that being a good traveler requires prioritizing curiosity, flexibility, and stewardship over rigidly following itineraries, citing personal experiences in Austria and Thailand to illustrate how embracing the unexpected leads to deeper engagement and positive impact on destinations.

Key Points: The speaker emphasizes that good travel rests on three pillars: curiosity, flexibility, and stewardship, rather than obsessively planned itineraries. While writing in Austria about a winery, the speaker realized that the best views were often found by ignoring the guidebook and climbing onto a dilapidated shed. During her time as a travel writer in Thailand, she realized that many definitions of 'good travel' were narrowly focused on tourism and often omitted environmental impact, like the 300,000 metric tons of non-biodegradable plastic waste Bali produces annually. An interview with a Lake Tahoe resident revealed that tourism often creates negative impacts, such as plastic pollution and overcrowded beaches, which locals resent. The speaker suggests replacing rigid itineraries with an intentional focus on these three pillars to foster greater empathy and connection with local environments and cultures. Mark Twain's quote, 'Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness,' reinforces the value of experiences over mere sightseeing.

Context: Eryn Gordon, a travel writer, shares her evolving perspective on what constitutes good travel. Her initial experiences, including a trip to an Austrian wine region and subsequent work in Thailand, revealed a disconnect between the curated tourist experience and the reality faced by locals, prompting her to shift focus from merely seeing places to deeply engaging with and caring for them.

Detailed Analysis

Eryn Gordon delivers a talk advocating for a shift in how people approach travel, moving away from rigid, itinerary-driven tourism toward a model built on curiosity, flexibility, and stewardship. She recounts an early experience in Austria where the best view was found by climbing onto a decaying shed, an unplanned moment that contrasted with the expected tourist path. Later, while working as a travel writer in Thailand, she became acutely aware of the negative externalities of mass tourism, specifically citing Bali's annual production of 300,000 metric tons of non-biodegradable plastic waste. An interview with a Lake Tahoe resident further confirmed this negative impact, as the local felt that tourism often neglects the environment and local life. Gordon references Mark Twain's quote that travel combats prejudice, but argues that modern travel often fails to deliver this transformative experience because it focuses too heavily on pre-packaged itineraries. She concludes by proposing that travelers should focus on three core pillars—curiosity, flexibility, and stewardship—to ensure their journeys actively benefit the destinations and foster genuine connection, rather than just consuming experiences.