Like a lot of us, during COVID-19, I swore that I’d never take travel for granted again. And I’ve traveled like many Americans more than I used to. It’s often called revenge travel.
But some say, the party’s over.
Airbnb, Ryanair, and Expedia are singing the blues about a travel slowdown. Odd, right? Especially when your Instagram feed is bursting with vacation pics.
The numbers tell a different story. Over 44 million Americans flew internationally from January to July this year. That's up 10 percent from last year. And globally, tourism hit 97 percent of pre-pandemic levels in Q1.
In fact, In 1990, only 5 percent of Americans had passports. Today? It's nearly 50 percent. That's 160.7 million passports in circulation.
All this is happening, the trips, the passports, the wanderlust when the gap between the wealthy and the rest of us is wider than ever.
What the hell is going on? I have a theory or a few.
This is yet another symptom of the mutual fever dream our society has been in since at least COVID-19. Things have been odd to say the least.
Our money is buying less but some of us are spending more of it.
Those who are keeping up with the joneses are likely doing so on credit. As we’ve discussed here before, American credit card spending is through the roof as is our debt load as consumers.
And let us not forget that America has not felt this unstable in my lifetime and likely yours. Everyone needs an escape from their lives here or there. Even when airline peanuts are involved.
What do you think? Am I on to something? Are you traveling abroad? And why is this happening?
Let me know in the comments and support my work at jamesbrowntv.substack.com.
"On that note, I'm James Brown and as always, be well."
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