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The Safety of Travel
An article about traveling through Cairo written by Greg Sullivan, founder of Afar Media and partner of Global Explorers, caught my eye this week. Greg talks about his recent visits to Egypt after Mubarak resigned. He points out that more than 2.2 million people have visited Egypt in the second quarter of the year and that none have been attacked. Point being: Egypt is a seemingly dangerous place at this time yet it appears to offer a fairly safe travel experience.
Mr. Sullivan adds “According to the New York Times, 67 people were shot in various incidents in New York over Labor Day weekend; 13 died. When I traveled to New York, nobody emailed me to make sure I was OK. But when things happen in a foreign land -- and let's be honest, particularly in the Middle East -- people are more likely to assume an isolated incident is indicative of much more.” See here for the full story
I have a family and we travel domestically and internationally a lot. I also run an organization that brings students and educators to places all over the world. Travel safety is a concern for me personally and professionally. As an organization, we regularly consult updates and craft policies based on data from national organizations such as the Center for Disease Control and the State Department. We talk to our partners in our host countries where we offer cross-cultural exchange opportunities. We prepare safe itineraries, plan for contingencies, train our staff in dealing with emergencies and much more. In short, we do everything we can to prepare safe travel experience.
There are many times when traveling, however, that the words of Mr. Sullivan resonate most closely with my personal philosophy. At home, I get in a car almost daily. That’s probably the riskiest thing that I do. I get on a bike and ride down busy streets with cars. That’s probably not terribly safe either. I eat lots of potato chips (my one big vice). Yet, I feel safe doing these things because I am comfortable doing them. I am accustomed to them.
Flying around the world to do a service project in a rural area of a developing country is something, on the other hand, that I don’t do every day (though I probably do it more than most since it’s partly my job). This unfamiliarity can make me more nervous and worried about my personal safety.
So while I do everything I can to create a safe environment for travel, I also remind myself that it’s probably safer than most things I do every day here at home. This helps me fully embrace my travel experience, focusing more on the adventure of it all than on the things that might (but probably won’t) happen while traveling.
