Some five thousand generations ago the human race was, as best we know, a small tribe in Northern Africa. From there we populated the globe. We walked, we rode on domesticated animals, we built vessels to travel by water, we invented wheeled carts and trained animals to pull them, and we extended our presence across the continents. Clearly wanderlust, the urge to see what might be over the hill or beyond the horizon, is built into our genetic makeup. It makes sense. By spreading out we maximized our chances ofsurvival. When things got tough in one place at least some of us had moved on to another place where perhaps the same threats to our continued existence did not obtain. Those adventurous souls who acted as our scouts and learned new ways of doing things may have ensured our survival as a species.
Just as some of us were adventurous enough to climb over the next hill and report back, some of us seem to be able to go beyond our narrow tribal identities to embrace a broader social experience. Scientists have identified a gene they associate with risk-taking. Babies with the gene are more comfortable with strange adults, quicker to adapt to different settings. Perhaps the natural traveler between human societies is a risk taker of that sort.
Clearly some travelers are looking for something authentically different. A recent survey of culinary travelers found that what they most wanted was a distinctive local food experience, not necessarily in a fine restaurant. Such a traveler would rather go to New Orleans or Paris than to the New Orleans or Paris exhibit at a theme park. And once there, would probably look behind the most visited tourist locations for something more distinctively local. What is local and distinctive has unique value.