Diversity refers to any scale by which groups of people are different from one another.
These differences can be ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, and education.
As a policy, diversity means letting all these differences coexist in a safe and supportive environment.
On the other hand, inclusion means respecting and valuing people whoever they are; it makes people valued members of any group, organization, or society.
An inclusive culture makes individuals feel valued and respected.
And when people know their worth and contributions are appreciated and valued, they become even more productive.
Together, diversity and inclusion make the mixture of different individuals coalesce successfully.
Does travel promote diversity and inclusion?
There are billions of travelers yearly worldwide. Although people like to think that traveling can cure racism, this isn’t always true.
Otherwise, there’d be fewer incidences of hate and prejudice.
There are many types of racism, and there isn’t a single magic bullet that could finish off any one of them.
Traveling alone might not be enough to make you more empathetic, but meeting strangers on a trip can help you develop empathetic feelings.
Traveling is a welcome break from monotony. It can stimulate your mind and reduce your stress. Traveling can also improve your creativity.
And yes, it can help you be a better person and point you on the road toward tolerance.
Maybe it can’t cure bigotry altogether, but seeing how other people live their lives in different situations can promote understanding, making people more accepting of diversity and inclusion.
Below are other ways travel can promote diversity and inclusion:
- Travel helps develop empathy
A person may be born empathetic, but this ability needs to be nurtured. Like other skills, the ability to look through other people’s eyes needs to be honed.
And you can do this through traveling.
Since traveling takes you out of your comfort zone, meeting new people in various situations in the real world revitalizes your empathy, expanding it to apply to a broader range of people.
Visits to cultures different from yours will remind you of what you have at home. When you see how and where they live, it humanizes them in your eyes.
They are no longer just the people you’ve read about—they’re right there in front of you. Seeing them in their own milieu helps you understand them.
And in understanding, compassion and empathy follow. Traveling to other places is fun, but perhaps the most important thing travel can give you is the opportunity to see the world with fresh eyes.
- Travel increases self-awareness
Being exposed to other people and cultures can make you more open and honest with yourself.
You’ll begin to compare the cultures you’ve experienced, which means you’ll be more reflective. You’ll start to question things, be critical, and become an open-minded person.
And as your self-awareness increases, you’ll begin to recognize the biases and prejudices you knowingly or unknowingly hold.
Psychologists call this “cognitive flexibility,” which refers to your brain’s capacity to shift from one idea to another.
This concept is related to the ability to appreciate different perspectives.
Traveling can help your mind become more flexible; your old ways of thinking and doing things are challenged, and this allows you to adopt new ones. And as a bonus, your creativity is also developed.
- Travel gives a chance for cultural immersion
By immersing yourself in the culture of a place, you’ll gain a more profound understanding of an otherwise unfamiliar environment.
Cultural immersion lets you discover the vast diversity among the different countries around the world. Getting yourself immersed in other cultures gives you a chance to learn a new language.
It can allow you to discover and appreciate different cuisines. You’ll also learn about the people—for instance, what are they passionate about?
What’s important to them? What are their lives like?
Cultural immersion can involve many things, like eating with the locals, staying with a family, etc. This experience can give you an intimate and deeper understanding of a place and its people.
In short, you’ll get to experience authentic culture.
This immersion will also make you experience the “mere exposure effect,” which is a phenomenon based on the idea that the more people are exposed to something, the more they’ll like it.
People are afraid of the unknown; exposing them to unfamiliar images, including faces, reduces their avoidance reflex.
Experiencing different cultures while traveling can develop a person’s connection with people from different backgrounds.
Through cultural immersion, maybe people can understand and appreciate each other a little better.
Final thoughts
Although traveling isn’t a surefire cure for racism, it can inspire empathy. It can make people understand others and recognize their own biases and prejudices.
Traveling can also make them more critical, which can lead to self-awareness. Another thing that traveling can give a person is a chance to experience cultural immersion.
With cultural immersion, a person intimately learns about another culture—its food, customs, and perhaps even language.
A person who has experienced all that travel has to offer and has developed a connection with others is more accepting of diversity and inclusion.