If I could travel anywhere, where would I go?

 Part 1: The Why

What other activity has been romanticized, in verse and legend, memoir and myth, more fervently and volubly than travel? Thousands of much-loved adventure classics, hundreds of folk ballads and millions of meticulously curated Instagram accounts commonly eulogise the open road, sea or sky. Travel is as seen a key that unlocks the mind, opening it up to new perspectives and ideas, as we see and experience new things and meet new people. 

Indeed, when asked what is the purpose of (leisure) travel, the reply is normally one of these three main justifications: seeing, experiencing and meeting people. 
However, in this globalised day and age, where one can meet another on the other side of the world at the click of a zoom link, can travel be justified by meeting new people? For the most part, no. The extent of cellphone and internet penetration even in relatively poor countries has, for the most part, made it possible to contact practically anybody on any side of the world. 
Can travel then be justified by seeing new sights? No, given the advent of the camera, which can capture an image just as well as the eye can see. Indeed, some photos we see may arguably provide a richer visual experience as we see through the lenses of professionals who know how to best capture the critical details, the essence of a place. 
What about new experiences? Experiences, are, at first glance the most enduring justification for travel. For example, going scuba-diving. Scuba diving in the pristine waters of Australia or Bora Bora is an item that has appeared on countless
bucket lists. Most would not be able to scuba diva at home, even those who live on the coast, due to lack of scuba diving resources etc. Therefore, it seems reasonable to travel to far-off, exotic locations to experience it. 

But then, say a scuba diving facility is set up at your local beach. Why would you choose to travel to Australia if there was somewhere you could scuba dive on your local beach? Many would argue that the waters of most people’s local beaches are incomparable to the natural splendour of the Australian seas. But what if one could wear an extremely realistic VR headset, that allowed you to see the flora and fauna of Australia? Would there be a point in travelling to Australia then?
Given the advent of virtual reality, and the pace of modern technology, it is likely to be possible to create a similar experience, and perhaps replicate many other similar activities in the near future just as effectively as the camera has been able to replicate sight. 

If experiences can be artificially replicated in a satisfactory manner, will there then be a point in travelling to experience things?
If the most cited reasons we travel collapse before offers of suitable alternatives, what is then the reason millions of tourists travel across the world to pay homage to the Taj Mahal, to look down from the Empire State Building, to watch the sun set behind Notre Dame? Is it mere FOMO, fear of missing out, is it herd instinct? Or is there a reason too elusive to perceive for out proclivities of exploring the castles and battlefields ancient fellow humans walked upon?

Eons ago, any journey was a major endeavour. Voyagers set off on expeditions of uncertain length and likelihood of return, whether merchants hauling their colourful wares across the Silk Road, or sailors setting off on ship across the perilous seas. 
Leisure travel, was for the most part, unthinkable, given the constant peril of travel. 
Travel was thus always deeply purposeful, for work, for pilgrimage, for visiting relatives. But need it be that way now?
Travel is as convenient as it has ever been, with an abundance of safe and extremely fast transport, by air, water, railway etc. And it’s the least justifiable it’s ever been. 
Ans so considering the great comparative ease of travel today, and looking at the sheer increase in people who travel with less “justification” than ever before, is it necessary to justify travel in the ways we have before?
Ask someone why they are travelling to a place, and the answer, whether it be revelling in the natural splendour of the Amazon, or walking the streets Renoir and Monet once walked, or simply a change of scenery, is always cultural longing-culture in the sense of the numerous different social circles or organisations that people interact with deeply in their daily lives, and not solely the narrower ethnic sense. 

Travel is a cultural experience: most obviously, in the sense that we may experience a new culture when we travel, but more significantly in which places our own culture pushes us to visit based on the perceptions of these places in our own culture. 
Which places we choose to travel to says less about the place and more about the perception of the place in our culture. Paris’s status as the City of Love has less to do with Paris itself than global perception, as is India’s status as the spiritual capital of the world. 

Travel is either honouring the culture we live in by visiting places it deems significant or we associate with it, or divergently, taking a step away from it to explore places and cultures that we deem to contrast with our own
For example, a student backpacking on their gap year, may be visiting places that their culture around them deems significant or beautiful, perhaps Paris, for interest in art or Greece as a student of the Classics.
The thousands of corporate employees who visit Buddhist monasteries or secluded island destinations try to experience a culture, perhaps of peace and tranquility, they feel contrasts strongly from their own.

Though during travel, one may see, meet with and experience new things, in short, learn and gain wisdom, this is an outcome of travel, not the impulse behind it. The impulse behind travel beneath the many layers of justification, is shaped most prominently by the ever-shifting tides of the social circles we walk in and the mercurial winds of the culture that surrounds us.