“My mission is to equip and inspire Americans to venture beyond Orlando,” travel writer Rick Steves told guests during a session of the 2021 CSG National Conference on Dec. 3. “I don’t have anything against Orlando, but if you’ve been to Disney three or four times, try Portugal!”
Steves, a TV host, leading authority on European travel and bestselling guidebook author, served as a keynote speaker and signed copies of his newest book, “Travel as a Political Act.” During his talk, Steves encouraged listeners to travel with awareness and to return home with a broadened perspective.
“I find that culture shock is not something to avoid; its something to embrace,” he said. “It’s good. It’s the growing pains of a broadening perspective. We learn more about our own home when we leave it and look at it from a distance.”
Drawing on examples from his own travel experiences, Steves offered suggestions about how American can travel in a way that respects and learns from other cultures. In his own experience, as well through his guided tours, Steves says connection is the mark of success.
“We travel to connect,” he said. “When we connect, we have empathy. I don’t care how many museums you saw. How many people did you really get to know? If I’m not connecting people to people, I’m not doing a good job.”
Steves described how Americans can learn from European sensibilities on issues ranging from food to substance abuse. It’s not that one approach is right or wrong, he said — but Americans should learn from other perspectives. Regarding drugs, he says Europe takes a harm reduction approach that has significantly reduced the number of lives lost.
“When we have addicted people, they need lawyers, they need judges, they need law and order,” Steves said. “Europeans think they don’t want to be addicted. These are sick people. They need compassion, they need counsel, they need nurses, they need a little love. They don’t get it all right, and we don’t get it all wrong. But we both have about 1% of our population addicted to hard drugs. In our country, which is essentially the same population, we lose 70,000 people a year. In Europe, they lose one-tenth of that.”
In many ways, Europe and the U.S. are sister societies, Steves said, facing many of the same challenges, despite varying responses. And whatever spats may take place between governments, he says, the goodwill between Americans and Europeans runs deep on a personal level.
Once, while working on a filming project in France, Steves stayed the night at what he called a “mom-and-pop castle.” During a dinner party thrown by his enthusiastic hosts, Steves was shown a reminder of the relationship between the U.S. and France.
“They bring out wine and cheese, and then, as if bringing out some religious relic, they brought out this beloved, 48-star American flag,” he said. “It’s a small town in Burgundy. And they said, ‘This is the flag that we raised over our town on the day that American troops liberated us from Nazi tyranny.’ And they said, ‘We will never, ever let an American into our castle without thanking them and sharing our flag and reminding you to please go home and tell your friends and neighbors that we are forever grateful for America’s determination to defend freedom and its valor as we were fighting Nazism in Europe.”
At the same time, Steves told listeners that travel — real travel — reminds people that the world is bigger than their own personal, cultural or political experience.
“Everybody’s got a Fourth of July, and everybody’s got their own dream,” he said. “Other societies have a different dream than ours. When you travel, you get away from your ethnocentrism.”
As a political act, Steves said, travel is an act of affirmation and understanding. By traveling, people can unlearn fear and begin to practice understanding.
“Fear is for people who don’t get out very much,” he said. “The flip side of fear is understanding, and we gain understanding when we travel.
“Ever since I was a kid, I’ve found you can travel with the window down or the window up. If you put the window down and get out of the car, it’s the most enriching experience. Any can do it. Anyone can get out there and get to know the world.”