Has Travel Become Another Exercise in Narcissism?

I’m sorry Expedia, but it sure as hell doesn’t make you more interesting

Henry Wismayer
Human Parts
Published in
7 min readNov 20, 2014

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“Travel yourself interesting…”

The concept invaded my consciousness as only an insidious radio advert can.

I was on a South London bus, headphones firmly implanted to drown out the school-kids’ Friday morning hullabaloo, when amongst the usual litany of shouty commercials came the sound of waves and seagulls.

A soothing voiceover inquired: “Why be Andy Nuttall when you can be…” and suddenly there arose the voice of Andy himself, assaulting my eardrums in a strangled underwater scream that proclaimed his name in affirmatory joy: “…A-N-D-Y N-U-T-T-A-L-L?!?”

Then came that slogan: “Travel yourself interesting,” and here was the rub — the once tedious Mr. Nuttall had been injected with an ebullient charisma by way of a simple trip abroad.

My photo of this tree will definitely be superior to the 10,000 I could find online.

As I pondered this seductive message, part of a tongue-in-cheek promotional campaign by internet travel company Expedia, one question nagged: if travel makes you interesting, why are so many…

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Henry Wismayer
Human Parts

Essays, features and assorted ramblings for over 80 publications, inc. NYT Magazine, WaPo, NYT, The Atlantic, WSJ, Nat Geo, and TIME: www.henry-wismayer.com.