{"id":1609,"date":"2023-06-23T15:23:20","date_gmt":"2023-06-23T22:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/?p=1609"},"modified":"2023-07-13T23:14:33","modified_gmt":"2023-07-14T06:14:33","slug":"too-much-money-too-much-tourism-tourism-as-entertainment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/2023\/06\/23\/too-much-money-too-much-tourism-tourism-as-entertainment\/","title":{"rendered":"Too much money? Too much tourism? Tourism as entertainment?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Record numbers of tourists are set to tackle challenges like scale Mount Everest and exploring Antarctica. Sometimes they die.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Source: Sub deaths highlight “extreme tourism” boom as travelers chase thrills<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

In making this web site I learned how out of touch I am. All of my contemporaries and peers have already traveled much of the world. I am far behind.<\/p>\n

Folks who have already been everywhere are now seeking greater “adventure” and more exotic locations. And they apparently have the money. “Extreme tourism” is a $300 billion\/year business now, and is expected to reach $1 trillion per year. This seems more like entertainment than what I think of as travel, but it is what it is.<\/p>\n

My own, late in life, travel goals are modest. I am not chasing a country count – I have doubts that I will reach ten countries. But I am looking for opportunities to learn, and to become globally and culturally aware. Rather than a countries list, like many pursue, my goals are that before I’m gone I will have spent 5 to 10 months outside the U.S. This is comparable to a young person who has done a semester or year study abroad. Sort of – unfortunately, I have not yet identified a way to have the social connections and interactions in another country, which occur naturally by studying or working abroad.<\/p>\n

I hope that perhaps within 2 years I can stay in one country for at least 2 months on an extended stay. It is generally not possible to stay for more than 90 days in a 180 day period. There are extended stay options for younger people but those options are generally not available to older adults.<\/p>\n

One thing I will be looking into is an extended stay language immersion training program. I’ve been studying – on my own – Norwegian and Spanish. But to really learn a language requires immersion. Of those two, there seem to be more study options available for Spanish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Extreme tourism” is a $300 billion\/year business now, and is expected to reach $1 trillion per year. This seems more like entertainment than what I think of as travel, but it is what it is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-languages","category-planning","category-travel-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1609\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}