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Australia and Canada are both about the size of the US, but we are pretty well-represented travellers. Most people I know have at least been overseas. There may not be quite AS much to see in our nations but there's still a lot. The US is geographically quite isolated from most of world, except maybe the east coast to Europe and of course the rest of te Americas, but then so is Canada or somewhere like New Zealand.
Agree that Australians and Canadians are more likely to get struck by the travel bug..I think alot of it has to do with just being from a smaller or less-populated country, the overall societal mentality has a natural curiosity of "other places"...It's true people from larger more populated countries like the US, simply do not seem to think so much about other places.
Also, American culture is also a workaholic culture- more than Australia or Canada- so that is another element as to why people may be perhaps less likely to "vacation" or take "longer" (as in overseas) trips...
As is evident from responses on this thread, a large proportion just figure they have so much diversity of cities, subcultures, scenery, climate within the US- the most in the world really, that there's no need to go elsewhere..I dont agree with that though, as I love to travel out-of-country
I have opted for many a foreign trip because I'm such a cheapskate traveler, perhaps, arguably, penny-wise dollar-foolish. I hate even paying $40 a nite for a room! And I hate the stress of driving a car with a passion!
As I've gotten older, I prefer to just make sure, wherever I travel, they've got great cheap transportation in place, city and rural, and mountains. If they had chicken buses in the U.S. I'd probably never leave this country, but bus transportation is sorely lacking in the rural areas of the U.S. I love their system down there, don't have to be at a designated bus stop, just flag a bus down, when you want to get off, they'll let you off anywhere. That, to me, is such a luxury!
I just made my very last long car trip 2 months ago, just can't do it anymore and the U.S. entails lots of car driving! I envy those who have never lost their desire to drive a car long distances!
I travel alot and meet alot of other traveling ppl from all over the world, but I never meet americans except for when traveling in the US (well, I do, but not as often as i should).
You have a fantastic country, I get that, but still, theres so much more to see.
I dont know anyone of my friends or family who havent been to USA or Thailand.. Most of the ppl I know also visited China, Caribea and Australia. (and almost every Swede have visited Germany, Spain, UK, Italy, Greece & France before the age of 10)
Read somewhere that only 20% of the americans owns a passport!! That cant be true, can it?
A theory I have is that u maybe dont have so much vacation? (Most Swedes have 5-6 full paid weeks every year. So does our neighbouring countries Norway, Denmark, Finland, Germany).
Whats your theories?
I know a lot of Americans who have traveled overseas however most Americans are middle class and don't have the kind of money it requires.
So many people have kids and taking kids on a family trip overseas would be too expensive. A lot of people going to college are working to pay fairly high tuition rates and can't afford to travel overseas.
I can see how it could be only 20% of Americans with a passport, those without kids and those whose kids are grown who have the time and money for travel.
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Originally Posted by lovesMountains
Actually, I'd much prefer the beauty of Japan over China. Not to mention, the pollution and smog is so awful in China I'd never want to visit, Tibet not included
You'd never want to see places like this in real life?
I've been to China and the US and both are probably the most diverse countries in the world in terms of landscape. China just has some things you can't find in the US, just as the US has things China doesn't. Japan is beautiful too (although I've not been), but I think everything in Chiina is just bigger and generally more spectacular, but Japan is pretty and picturesque. The cities are polluted, though, and unfortunately some natural areas are pretty crowded.
hi,
The current percentage of Americans that own a passport is now around 21% up from 15% years ago. Unfortunately, this common statistic that is hard to back up as the state department doesn’t really keep records.So why did we all go get passports? Because we are now required to have passports for travel to Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. In fact, Mexico travel is up while European travel is down. Americans didn’t find a new sense of adventure. They still not traveling. And the reasons remain the same.
surely as Jtur88 said you can just add the figures for the last 10 years of passports issued since they only last 10 years...... and the statistics are up to and including 2010.
Don't want to dwell on that, but No that would not work and even Jtur88 admits that. Passports for children expire in 5 years, not 10, people die, etc. Also I am not sure renewels are in that number, or passport "card" vs. books, I assume they are but not sure. Also a number of citizens in the US have dual citizenship, or are nationals, and may be using another passport. You also have to consider expats living abroad. And again, when comparing to other nations that do have these statistics you have to consider passports held by adults in most cases.
Here CNN is saying 30%, who knows how they calculated that and if it includes a population of children or just adults (making their comparison invalid to the rest of the world).
It’s also worth pointing out that although some places like the U.K. are just teeming with passports (71% of the population at last count), at least Americans aren’t as bad in this respect compared to, say, the Chinese, whose 20 million passport holders make up a measly 1.5% of the population. Also, Americans come respectfully third in the number of international departures, behind Germany and the United Kingdom (of course this is a little skewed given population numbers).
And the point again is that, I travel, alot, about 100,000 miles a year. And when I travel overseas the nationality I see more than any other is American. Maybe it's the same few over and over again, but still.
Moderator cut: see comment I bet that most americans have seen a great number of states in the USA. Europeans can travel to a different country like Americans can travel to different states. We can't just hop on a 30 dollar flight over the Atlantic ocean. Moderator cut: see comment For the record, I saw more Americans in Colombia than I did Europeans altogether.
You can make your point without being offensive Burgler, geez The question was born out of curiosity. Our job as Americans is to explain why it seems that way to the OP not belittle or mock her intelligence?
Last edited by BstYet2Be; 12-22-2011 at 05:18 PM..
Reason: Personal attacks are not permitted per ToS. We may attack ideas but we do not attack the speaker of the ideas.
I've traveled to Europe, I love it out there, I'd like to go more often or to Japan, but monetary reasons aside, I think you're right, we don't have a lot of vacation time compared to Europeans. And to be honest, 1 week in Europe isn't enough by the time you dish the money out, get over jet lag, travel around, it seems more like working than a vacation.
Plus we can travel to other places a lot closer and cheaper for a change of scenery, and no worry about a language barrier.
yep, thats because they are rude. These are the same jerks that give us Americans a bad reputation outside the States.
Some very interesting info, thanks.. Some of you mention "money" as an issue. Well i guess spending a week in ie Malaysia would be much cheaper than a week in Florida. Money is one reason that Swedes leaves our (expensive) home country for vacation, you´ll get so much more for the money.
The main reason is of course that you have such big country yourself.
Also sorry for those who was offended, i didnt mean to critisise, i was just curios.
Also i didnt know this was a common subject in other threads, sorry.
There is no need to apologize. The essence of forums like these is not only to gossip or make empty noise. It also presents an opportunity for people around the world to communicate and learn from one another. I've read several very detailed posts citing reasons why most Americans dont travel. I hope you can ignore the silly contributions and soak up the reasonable responses.
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The question was born out of curiosity. Our job as Americans is to explain why it seems that way to the OP not belittle or mock her intelligence? 
