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How common is travel abroad where you live? In your circle? By "abroad", I include Mexico, Canada, the Bahamas, Cuba, and Russia (for residents of Western Alaska), as well as every other country than the United States.
I think for residents of Duluth, experience with travel abroad can be grouped into five groups:
1) Canada. The Canadian border is a 2.5 hours' drive away. I would say the majority of adults have been there at least once in their lives, though frequent travel there is rare.
2) Mexico and Caribbean nations that do not / did not have strict border controls. I would suspect a large percentage of local adults, perhaps even the majority, who did not come from poor families and their children have been to Mexico or some other Caribbean nation, either on a cruise or beach vacation. Rising airfares have made taking the whole family there more difficult, though. Popular destinations include or included Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Belize, various other Caribbean islands, and Mexico. Less common, but still fitting in this category, would be Panama and Costa Rica. Popular destinations in Mexico include or included Cancun; Puerto Vallarta; Maztalan; and Playa del Carmen / Riviera Maya. Some people have also been to border towns. Travel into the interior of Mexico (even to Chiapas, Oaxaca, or Mexico City) or on the coast away from the "approved" beach resorts fits into category #3 or even #4.
3) Popular European countries. A reduced number of local people - perhaps 10-20% of adults - have been to various European destinations popular with Americans. Ireland, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, etc. seem to be among the most popular countries locally.
4) Countries in which the US has a military presence Many local men (and some women) have traveled through the military to Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany, South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Kuwait, etc.
5) Adventurous / rare / expensive destinations A definite minority of adults have been to destinations off the well-trodden-by-American path. This includes every Eastern European country; every African country; every South American country, with the possible exception of the cities of the north coast of South America, which some cruise lines make ports of call in; all of Asia, etc. I would guess that 10% or under of local adults have been to such countries, usually on study-abroad programs.
In my family it is common as we are all actually from Overseas and in my immediate family only myself and one sibling live in the US (One sister is in Berlin, my parents recently returned to Jamaica) Also my wife is the only one in her immediate family in the US so we visit her family in Trinidad and Canada often.
As far as friends and co-workers are concerned, I would say I do not have even one close friend who has not been overseas at least once in their life, most of which Internationally travel at least once a year. I believe I read an article that Massachusetts has the highest Passport holder percentage of any state in the US, so people I find are relatively well travelled.
My circle is college educated lower-to-middle middle-class, urban/suburban New Mexican. I would say that 75+% of my circle have been to Europe or at least Britain. Quite a few have been further abroad and perhaps a couple who have only been to Canada and/or Mexico/Caribbean. Now this is my circle of friends and their spouses/immediate family, maybe a group of 25 people or so, a rather small sample. I'm sure if you were to include acquaintances, work-mates, etc. you would find a reduced statistic.
It seems statistically improbable sine the media says that fewer than 1% of Americans has even left their county </sarcasm>
Two percent of Americans live in the Detroit or Buffalo Metro Areas. If half of them have been to Canada, that's 1% right there.
It's tradition here in Detroit for 18 year olds to celebrate their birthdays in Canada as the drinking age there is 18. Also, at one time, Windsor had the closest casino until Detroit built 3 of it's own. So a lot of the older demographics used to/still frequent to Canada as well.
Travel isn't limited to just Windsor, it's common to see travel brochures for London (Ontario), Niagara Falls, and whatever little attractions in between since it's all roughly along the same path.
Outside of Canada, there's the usual spots like the Carribean and Mexico. I rarely hear of locals travelling to the other side of the Atlantic (or Pacific depending on your view) unless they're with a special organization or for a school field trip. Though I do hear of a lot of European travelers coming to this area (mostly French who are into historic architecture and techno).
Everybody in my family and pretty much all of my friends have been overseas. My family has always encouraged travel, and many of my friends are heavy travelers as I can relate to them well and share experiences. My mom was in Slovenia and Italy a few years back for a few months, a bunch of my family just went to Jamaica. My dad spent the first years of his life living in Japan. I have pictures of my great aunts in Egpyt in the 1920s. Really, we are a well traveled bunch. After this next year I should be around 40 countries. We have also hosted several exchange students in our home. I honestly can't think of anybody I know in my circle of friends that hasn't been out of the country, and several of my close friends I've been on road trips or out of the country with. Even my senior trip in h.s. was in Mexico. It was just to Cancun/Cozumel but, still counts I suppose.
Last edited by grapico; 03-14-2012 at 07:41 PM..
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