"Travel represents the quintessential experience, allowing us to play with our identity and to let the unexpected transform the traveller. Dante Alighieri can be seen as the first tourist in history: his journey in the Divine Comedy is a transformative travel experience." In a world that seems saturated with tourism, it is urgent to give meaning to the practice of travel amid its social, digital, and environmental transformations. Rudi Capra, a researcher in Philosophy at Wuhan University in China and author of "Philosophy of Travel" (Mimesis Edizioni), explains: "Travel has been extensively covered in literature, but there has been a noticeable lack of philosophical reflection on the subject".
 

Capra, what is the point of a 'philosophy of travel' today?

"To ask the right questions about a very ancient practice that affects all cultures. The origins of humanity lie in a significant migration from Africa, and the journeys of people, tribes, and civilizations, all seeking better living conditions, encourage us to consider the essential questions surrounding this practice".
 

You speak of "desire" and "identity": how do they relate to the journey?

"Travel, like many human activities, is intimately linked to the desire to be someone else, to be elsewhere, to become other. It opens the door to opportunities for existence that we have not yet considered, distancing us from the identity we have constructed in our daily lives. It allows us to renegotiate the limits of that identity, through a spatial, intellectual, and imaginative shift. It therefore reflects a deep desire, an instinct that moves every living being. And though we may not perceive it, the journey changes us: we shape the world, but as it flows through us, it shapes us as well".
 

Does this apply to any kind of travel? From migration to tourism?

"Of course. Let's think about flânerie, the practice of walking through already known and familiar places in the city, from point A to a random point X, in a way that disorients, changing our perspective on how we travel and relate to the world. Xavier de Maistre himself, confined to house arrest in 1794, was able to recount the 'Journey round my room' by changing his attitude and training his spirit of observation."
 

But in the age of 'gaseous identity', AI and the algorithm that directs our desires, where does travel fit in?

"Hartmut Rosa speaks of "acceleration" for our time. We are subject to a "frenetic stasis", a constant moving around to get nowhere, even in our free time. Since the digital revolution in 2000, travelling has become an increasingly easy and hectic experience. Consider the growth in tourist numbers: in 1989, there were 400 million tourists, which surged to 1.4 billion by 2019. Tourism accounts for over 10% of global GDP and is the world's leading industry, responsible for one in five jobs. Today, we can fulfil any desire and showcase that we've crossed the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan or climbed Mount Everest. Travel becomes a symbol of status, a consumer good subject to the frenzy of desire".
 

In light of this, how do we decide on our travels now?

"Rather than opting for a journey, I would choose a travel experience'. In German, the term “experience” is translated "erfahrung" which comes from the verb "fahren", to travel. "The experience" is therefore synonymous with "my journey", or "what I went through". The intrinsic risk of wild tourism is ending the trip with no more experience than when we began, an erfahrung devoid of the fahren, a futile spinning like a top. So, regardless of what we choose, from the Inca pyramids to our bedroom, the important thing is to always do it with a critical and wondering attitude."
 

Shall we return to the relationship between desire and identity?

"We need to be connected with our desire, which is often mimetically induced to us. Instead, we must understand what is important and essential to us, through introspection and contemplation. By searching outward, we may not always discover what we can have."
 

Has the digital era enhanced or degraded the journey?

"Technology has transformed our way of being in the world over the last 20-30 years. We are becoming more linked with virtuality, a realm of potential rather than reality. Technology should not be demonised, but there are many risks, and we must find a balance. One way is by seeking contact with nature, rediscovering that primitive, phenomenological sense of unity with the world, as many tried to do in the post-Covid era."
 

Has the representation of the journey now swallowed up the experience?

"Susan Sonntag said that photography is a way of making, producing and sharing experience, but it is also a way of rejecting it. In tourism, experience often becomes reduced to the photogenic, turned into an image or a souvenir. We must be alert to a kind of tourism that assembles images like pearls on a necklace, seeking imposed symbolic meaning rather than genuine connection. This mindset detaches us from real places and aligns us with the intangible realm of virtuality, demanding social validation that gratifies and becomes part of our identity. It’s also part of the narcissistic drift of the media-world that surrounds us and in which we live."
 

How do we get out of the overtourism bubble?

"By avoiding it, with ethical responsibility. Choosing locations off the beaten track benefits both the destination and the traveller. But local authorities also bear responsibility: they must ensure that the tourist experience is not devastating for the place that hosts it."
 

Is travel still an encounter with otherness, capable of educating and reshaping us?

"Yes, because it involves playing with our identity, something we experience from the very beginning, whenever we feel desire. You don't always have to be an Indiana Jones–type traveller. Dante himself may be seen as an early tourist, entrusting himself to his guides, Virgil and Beatrice, in a transformative journey shaped by his critical spirit, powers of observation, and capacity for contemplation."
 

Is slow tourism a solution?

"It holds enormous potential. Yet, the paradox lies in the fact that, once it becomes a form of "mass resistance", it turns into exactly what it had sworn to oppose. What matters is that it doesn't become just another passing trend."
 

In short, with 1.4 billion tourists in the world, can everyone have their own "travel philosophy"?

"It is desirable. With 7-8 billion people in the world and constantly growing migratory flows, it is necessary to reflect on the journey in all its many facets."
 

Yeah, migrations...

"They are part of human nature. 'It is a world of things that weep', says Aeneas as he flees Troy. Today, in a world struck by ecological crises, inequalities, and conflicts, migratory flows are becoming increasingly sudden and violent. The migrant is the opposite of the tourist: the former is forced to leave, while the latter chooses to. The migrant serves the native population, while the tourist is served. In this dynamic, between the freedom to pursue one’s desires and the compulsion to flee one’s homeland, we witness the imbalances of inequality that traverse the planet."

Photo by Krisjanis Mezulis on Unsplash