RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33060, 30 October 1972, Page 22

RANDOM REMINDER

TRAVELLER’S PROFILE

There has for many years been an increasing stream of our young people travelling abroad and a considerable quota returning to these shores. Over afternoon tea last week we had a most interesting discussion with a young man at present in the process of settling back into work after an extended sojourn overseas. He displayed increasing maturity, self - possession and was an excellent conversationist. We found many of his observations interesting and worthy of dissemination. He is, for instance, of the opinion that people holiday overseas for one of three basic reasons. First, those whose keen desire is to better themselves materially, spiritually, or both. Age, he contends, is no barrier. Second, those whose trip stems from a sense of social obligation—to visit

the same prestigious places already seen by the Jones’. And third, the group motivated by the wish to get away from it all. He is keen admiration for those in the first category. Their desire to travel stems from an honest goal which is invariably attained. And with it, they gain a refreshing awareness of life in other countries. And a healthy tolerance of new ideas and attitudes. There is also, he believes, a residual benefit for those who travel primarily to further their careers. The second group, he claims, are unimpelled by outgoing curiosity of the world around them, seem unusually vocal with some possessing overbearing personalities and given to bullying bellboys and terrifying ticketsellers. To them, places are of far greater importance than people.

They are the genus he claims who visit about 21 countries in as many days and are likely to inquire of receptionists if it is the Hamburg Hilton they are in or the Madrid Hilton. And finally, he concludes, the third group are what he termed escapists, holding the pitiful belief that leaving behind them their own three-mile limit will solve their problems and their misery—people who inevitably discover, wherever they may roam, that they take themselves with them, which sort of spoils everything. The young man of our story, back once more in his office chair, would be pardoned should his thoughts sometimes be far away. His employers are possibly unaware that they have a promising psychoanalyst on their staff. He should be invaluable in time, working as he does for an overseas travel bureau.