Many may recognise travelling opens up new perspectives, bringing a more positive attitude to new nations and people. This outlook is now supported by a comprehensive global study by travel search engine momondo.co.uk, which shows travelling makes us more open to other cultures.
In fact, momondo’s survey, of more than 7,200 representatively-selected people in 18 countries, displays a clear significant statistical link between travel and openness.
According to the study, those who travel a lot are more likely to generally have a degree of trust in people they meet for the first time, than those who travel less. And this is after the effect of other important variables, such as gender, age, education, income and urbanisation, has been taken into account.
Lasse Skole Hansen, Spokesperson at momondo states: “There are many different factors that affect how trusting and open we are towards other individuals. If for example, you compare the positive effects of travelling in our survey, with the effect of education, we see the positive effects of travel are significantly higher than those of education. This underlines the major link between frequent travel and being trustful citizens.”
The first major survey of travel and trust
And according to momondo, several academic studies, including one from Stanford University, have previously shown a positive link between travel and openness. As far as it’s known however, this is the first time such a large, representative study has addressed the issue.
Skole Hansen continues: “With this report, we wish to focus on the positive effects of travelling, namely the potential to break down barriers between people, across cultures. That, we believe, is vitally important. As almost half of respondents in the global survey believe people are now less tolerant of other cultures in general, than just five years ago.”
Results from the report
The study shows travelling has a clear statistical, significant positive effect in trusting other people, meaning we put more trust in other human beings the more we travel.
- 48% believe people today are less tolerant of other cultures than five years ago. Just 16% disagree with the statement.
- 76% believe travelling has given them a more positive outlook on diversity.
- 76% believe travelling has given them a more positive outlook on other cultures in general.
- 75% believe traveling has given them a more positive view of people from cultures they visited.
“The Value of Travelling” study consists of answers from 7,292 respondents in total with 400 respondents from each of the following 18 countries: Australia, Brazil, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Data was collected through data collection company Cint’s panels in each country. The respondents are demographically representative based on gender, age and regions.
Value of Travelling - momondo study
