USA

Don't Travel Stereotype

We've all heard the embarrassingly low statistics concerning the percentage of Americans holding passports, but at this point, it's over 30%. Still incredibly lame, and far behind the UK's 80%, but a lot better than you may have heard.

But I think that misses the point. It doesn't matter how many people have passports, but how many use them. And according to a (somewhat outdated) study that ranked countries according to number of trips abroad, the USA is in a respectable 3rd place. Woo hoo!

But that's by sheer numbers, not per capita. Germany was #1, with 86.6 million trips abroad...compared to a population of 80 million. Compare that to the 58 million trips that Americans took abroad, and our 300 million people, and they turn out to be quintuple the travelers we are.

We've got all sorts of excuses, of course. We live far away. Our economy sucks. And we barely speak our own language, much less others.

And all that would make sense, except when you take a look at Canada, where a respectable 60% hold passports, and according to tourist receipt data from 2009, they spent about 1/3 as much as (USA) Americans did on travel, but with only 1/10 the population, which makes them approximately triple the travel junkies we are. And both are in North America, so I don't think problems like expensive plane tickets are good enough excuses.

A frequent argument put forth is that travel expenditures correlate closely with income and proximity to international borders, and that's true enough, except when our Canadian buddies are upstaging us 3 to 1. I mean seriously, guys. Who the hell doesn't want to see the world?!?!!

And you might think travel is a frivolous expenditure that doesn't count as a necessity of life. Except that it exacerbates the next problem...