What Can Travel Teach Us?

Note to Attendees: Please consider making a $5 donation to contribute to the running costs of this Meetup.

Travel has long been associated with discovery, education, and transformation. From ancient pilgrimages to modern tourism, we often assume that movement through the world reveals something essential — about other places, other people, and ourselves. Yet in an age of mass tourism, constant mobility, and curated experiences, that assumption deserves closer examination.

Werner Herzog once wrote, “The world reveals itself to those who travel on foot.” But what exactly is being revealed through travel today — and to whom? Does travel still have the power to teach us something real, or has it become another way of escaping, consuming, or confirming what we already believe?

At our next Brisbane meetup, we’ll explore what travel can — and cannot — teach us. We will consider travel not simply as movement, but as a philosophical act that raises questions about identity, culture, truth, and responsibility.

The questions we will address at this meetup are as follows:

1. Does travel reveal who we truly are, or does it allow us to escape who we are?
2. Does mass tourism connect cultures, or flatten them?
3. Does travel bring us closer to reality, or simply replace one set of illusions with another?

This event will be held at The Osbourne Hotel in Fortitude Valley.
After the discussion, we’ll stay on for a meal and a drink together — a chance to continue the conversation in a more relaxed setting and support the venue.

PLEASE NOTE:
Please support the venue by purchasing a drink or meal during the event.
This is intended to be a good-natured but robust discussion. Please be respectful and prepared to have your ideas challenged. If you are easily offended, this event may not be for you.