“Money does not bring happiness”.
A phrase said a thousand times and known to everyone. I often wonder what happiness is… I sank deeper into my armchair, trying to answer myself. My attention was drawn to a photo from our recent trip. Instantly, I remembered the beautiful travelling moments.
This is what I call happiness! Travelling!
It hasn’t been long… About a year ago, when we regained the ability to travel freely, without restrictions and health safety protocols. Overnight, our journeys to the unknown, dreamy, distant, perhaps even nearby places became elusive dreams. In this unprecedented reality for everyone, the purchase of material goods, via the internet, was an escape. Courier companies took the role of a travel agent and passport became our bank card. Shopping Therapy in all its glory!
However, what we bought didn’t fill our deepest needs, that deep need for moments, travel moments, which encapsulate so much wonder. Souvenirs, which fill the trunks of our souls and load the memory cards of our minds.
It is no coincidence that for about a year and a half the tourism sector has recorded an explosive rise. A recent study by assistant professor at the Conrad N. Hilton college of Global Hospitality Leadership, Ms. Minjing Shin, presented how high-income consumers are showing an interesting shift.
Their interest no longer focuses on planned purchases of material goods but on unplanned (last-minute) expensive activities (booking luxury accommodation, etc.). This choice creates positive emotions for them while contributing to their need to escape from their routine.
Humans are inherently social and evolutionary beings. As our personality evolves, so do our priorities. Our life is a blessed journey, which we are called to live.
Memory, my friends, is inextricably linked to life. What we remember lives forever. Our journeys and the moments we lived in, are the gift. The gift to ourselves and to our loved ones. Our travelling moments will not wear out, they will not fade in time.
No mountaintop sunset, no kiss under the Eiffel Tower, no desert silence will be broken by falling off a high shelf. They will accompany us engraved in our memory, in our photos, forever ours.
At this point, I will tame the wilderness of my traveling thoughts, closing with favorite verses of the excellent Lina Nikolakopoulou.
“And only what you went through will remain…”
Happy travelling everyone!
The article was written by friend and traveler Georgios Kafantaris! We thank him very much for the honor of writing for us about a topic that we should answer: Does travelling bring happiness?
Εmail: [email protected]
