Barbara Risto, Publisher of Inspired Magazine, said in the April issue that April was meant to be the Canadian travel edition. Ironic timing in light of COVID-19. Not surprisingly, she was at a loss as to what to say about the future of travel.
Somber predictions are emerging for the future of tourism while we hold on to cautious hope for its revival and startup. These are uncertain times.
Like many other 55+ travellers, we had trips cancelled and plans suddenly upended in March. Now, as we attempt to unravel tickets, airfare, hotels and tours booked months ago, many of us grieve for long planned and lost celebrations while waiting in long phone queues listening to inane music.
Though we adjust to restrictions of isolation and social distancing, we long for greater freedom of movement. My travel reality is limited to daily trips to the grocery store and hikes around Victoria.
What’s a travel junkie to do in this time of suspended expectations?
In the absence of the real thing, I read, dream, and draw upon past memories. Sorting through old pictures and reading my journals brings joy and elicits positive emotions. According to neurobiologists, pleasant memories contain more vivid and richer contextual details. Memories, we are told, are affected by our emotional state at the time of encoding or retrieving. Considering the intrinsically optimistic, cheerful state of mind one has while traveling, remembering past trips is ‘almost’ as good as the real thing.
Books are another way to fuel the desire for travel. As an armchair tourist, I live vicariously through the adventures of others while I remain safe and warm at the same time.
Neil Pearts’ memoir, The Masked Rider: Cycling Across West Africa, made me laugh at his foibles while recalling some of my own uncomfortable, awkward, and even terrifying encounters. Peart, former RUSH drummer, lyricist, and author said in that book, “A journey to a remote place is exciting to look forward to, certainly rewarding to look back upon, but not always pleasurable to live minute by minute. Reality has a tendency to be so uncomfortably real.”
If remembering is fun, so can planning. Rick Antonson says in the epilogue to his book, To Timbuktu for a Haircut: A journey through West Africa: ‘‘For some, the greatest gift of travel is anticipation.”
So, no matter if it is savouring the past or soaring untethered in daydreams of future travel, for now, and for me, ‘thinking is the best way to travel.’
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Photo: Courtesy of Collette Travel