Mark Twain Inspired Travel: Changing Tourism into Exploration for Americans in the Modern World of Globalization

"Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime," wrote Mark Twain as he completed The Innocents Abroad. His stark satire brought many images of the world home to America in this best-selling collection of letters to newspapers. The book initiated an idea of travel journalism at the beginning of that brief moment in the world when people filled ocean liners to sail to exotic lands simply for the pleasure of the experience, before mass tourism and the industrialization of destinations diminished their value. Yet, Twain's writing was published in 1869. Ocean travel was difficult and slow and language barriers challenged at every port. Not everyone could take months off of work to enrich their minds or alleviate their boredom. For the most part, the upper class dominated this new idea of tourism. The historical events of the twentieth century changed the opportunities of the common people to travel as it did in many other areas of life.

The twenty-first century has spawned an unprecedented era of American travel. The opportunities of the world exist for those who are willing and interested. In Twain's time, a minority of Americans tasted the diversified areas of Europe and the Middle East, but the obstacle of the Atlantic Ocean insulated our continent. Today, Americans dominate practically all destinations abroad. Of course, the capacity to travel has directly mirrored the rise of America's commercial empire and superpower military. Two world wars broke the old European subjugation of the world and American soldiers brought the flavor of travel home. America (practically the only nation not burned to the ground after World War Two) threw itself everywhere in a metamorphosis that continues today. Efficient American business and the American cultural mayhem spread at the pace of jet planes. The backpacking curious youth have followed soldiers and business suits around the world.