Travel and culture are intimate companions, with each shaping the other in significant ways. When we travel, we are not merely tourists, we are participants in a cultural exchange. Every landmark, cultural festival, and craft we encounter embodies a story about a people’s relationships, history, and self-concept.
Think about the crowds and chaos of the souks of Marrakech where the colors, scents and sounds are combined in a sensory explosion of culture, or about the tea ceremonies, where hosts elevate hospitality to art. These cultural experiences are fundamentally participatory; they remind us that culture can only be experienced through engagement, through touch, through participation.
Conversely, we influence culture through travel. Travel brings people together in ways that influence how we identify as individuals and communities. While tourism allows locals to encounter new ways of being and thinking, few of us arrive to new places without bringing back stories and practices from the traditions we witness. When done with respect to local ways, that exchange benefits both sides: the local enjoys a sense of pride in the preservation of a culture and its heritage, while the traveler returns home hopefully with a deeper appreciation for the varieties of human experience and expressions.
