Bee Travel
Travel guilt is unnecessary
CHRISTINE HICKS- USTA Travel
Iremember the first column I wrote for The Bee, a piece about my first trip overseas to the Ivory Coast. Upon deplaning in Abidjan, I recall how impossible the thought had been to me not one second earlier that a place could smell different. In that instant, I recognized how insulated a life I had led. In that moment, my perception of everything changed. From zero to a hundred in a second, the world of wonderful differences appeared before me.

This is a fascinating world. The list of places I long to see is unquestionably far longer than time or funds will ever allow. Some voyages will have to remain virtual. Still, as long as I draw a breath, I will feel travel tugging me, just as it does when I look overhead at a jet trail.

Because I love to travel and I love the profound impact is has on those who do, it's disconcerting to read recent media reports. They hammer away at spiraling costs. Sometimes the thrust of the report says it's not "green" to travel. The focus is always on fuel that drives tourism - fuel for the airplanes, fuel to power hotels, fuel to gas up the family car. Predictions that we will (or, worse yet, admonitions we ought to) stay at home rather than generate emissions are rampant.

Oh, stop it, I say. Ther e are some really good reasons to keep traveling, despite the carbon footprint we generate and calculate. A journalist in the New York Times recently discussed her quest to journey "green," offsetting her carbon imprint as she traveled. Guilt over jet fuel sent her to research further. Interestingly, she learned that not taking the flight - or the trip at all - would have had what could be far worse impact than taking the long, gas-guzzling flight.

There are many countries, towns and cultures around the world that depend on tourism. Tourist dollars prime mini-economies. I trust you've heard of the store "Ten Thousand Villages" and its mission. There are tens of ten thousand villages filled with individual entrepreneurs eager to produce and sell their unique wares. Those direct dollars and those not-so-direct spent on hotels, airfare and tours raise the standard of living quite literally from the ground up. Children are better educated and healthier. And in countries whose industries are rudimentary and hard on the environment, it means that sooner, rather than later, they will have the ability to clean up their environmental act.

There may be unrest in Tibet, Haiti, Afghanistan and Kazakhstan, but where one cultural door closes, others open. Libya may have fickle borders, but Mexico and Italy welcome us. Perhaps you're not comfortable traveling anywhere in the Middle East. Our own Midwest has plenty to offer. While you're pondering the cost of your vacation, be it near or far, remember the impact it has in ways you likely never perceived. Don't let media hype insulate you from your different smell moment. Travel is good for everyone.

(Christine Hicks-Usta has enjoyed more than 30 years of globe-trotting as a member of the travel industry. Direct questions to her at Bee Group Newspapers, P.O. Box 150, Buffalo, NY 14231-0150.)