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Lack of money and time isn't the issue. The people I know all earn $50k or more. That makes them solidly middle-class by WNY standards. They also have weeks of unused vacation time. Some have months of accrued vacation time because they are workaholics who would rather be at the office 50+ weeks out of the year.
One person goes to the same places every summer with his wife and kids: Lake Placid, Lake George, Old Forge, and Olcott Beach. Never anywhere else. Always the same damn places every single year. How unadventurous can you get? They aren't even avid hikers. They spend most of their vacation in the village and take the same damn photos every year. All of their Facebook friends must laugh at how lame and uncultured they are!
One Buffalonian I know just spent the past couple of weeks in Namibia after living for two years in Malawi. Another lived in Russia for a year and studied abroad in Turkey in college. I'm pretty sure that every Buffalonian I know has a passport, if only to drive to Toronto for a weekend. I agree with the posters who think you just have very sheltered friends.
I was born and raised in Buffalo, and have lived in several large and small cities throughout the US during my life. I'd have to agree with the OP, somewhat. It's not so much that Buffalonians in general don't travel as much as their peers in other cities, but that their travel patterns are a lot different. A few observations, based on my family, friends, and acquaintances back home:
* Buffalonians don't travel much within New York State, compared to their peers in other Thruway cities. For example, I know a LOT of people in Buffalo who have never been to Rochester or NYC, even though they know Florida's Gulf Coast like the back of their hand. I see a lot of cars with ADK (Adirondack Mountains) stickers in Rochester and points east, but very few in the Buffalo area. I blame Thruway tolls for this -- it seems to have a psychological effect on how Buffalonians perceive the cost of travel within NYS.
* Buffalonians seem to prefer destinations that are far more tourism-oriented, to the exclusion of other interesting but less "touristy" cities and regions. Even then, it seems like there's a few favorite destinations that the Old Buffalo hive mind prefers over everyplace else --- Las Vegas, Myrtle Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Phoenix, Punta Cana, Cancun, and Sarasota. Seriously, Buffalonians love, love, LOVE Sarasota.
* When Buffalonians travel, they tend to return to the same destination over and over and over again. It'll be the same all-inclusive in Cancun, the same time share in Sarasota, the same casino hotel in Vegas, the same golf resort in Myrtle Beach, year after year after year. If they don't own a condo or vacation property, their peers in other cities will more often go to a different destination each time they travel.
I think travel habits among Buffalo's Millennials are more like their peers elsewhere in the country, for the Generation X and Baby Boomer crowd, though, it's old school -- the same place, in someplace warm, every year, and where's this Van Maur's store that Joanne told me about? Victor? Where's that? Off the 90 past Rochester? Too far.
Last edited by elmwood; 04-07-2017 at 08:25 AM..
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