Traveling in Uncertain Times: Q&A With Editor of Traveler

Brian Handwerk
for National Geographic News

November 9, 2001

The terrorist attacks of September 11 dramatically altered the travel
landscape for Americans and gave rise to anxieties that have rippled
across the industry. Yet the situation has created some good
opportunities for people whose wanderlust remains undimmed, and has
inspired some new ideas about ways of seeing the world. Keith Bellows,
the editor of National Geographic Traveler, recently shared with
NationalGeographic.com his thoughts on traveling in these uncertain
times.

Many companies are still restricting travel for their employees, and some people are too frightened to fly. Security, however, is tighter than it's ever been. Is this a safe time to fly?

The important thing for all of us is to put this into context. Nobody can guarantee our safety, and the chances of anything happening are still amazingly remote. We, as Americans, are finally catching up with the rest of the world in terms of our awareness of our vulnerability. So would I tell my son, who's 14 years old, to get on a plane and come to Washington? Yes. And that's probably the best litmus test I can give you. There are no guarantees in life, and I don't think it's any more dangerous [to fly] now than it was before September 11.

As safe as flying may be, some people will want to avoid air travel if only because it's becoming less convenient. What are some great travel options that don't include taking to the skies?

Safety aside, there's no question that travel has become a bigger hassle, so I understand people's reticence to deal with the hassle. Railways clearly are an option. Right now we have a reporter who is on a 30-day Amtrak pass, just traveling around the country. It's an enormously appealing, multipurpose approach to traveling the country because he can get on and off wherever he wants. He's finding little towns that he never would have imagined he'd visit. So it's a way to really see America. I think that people are not only going to return to the rails, but they're going to return to the bus. It's hard to imagine that Greyhound could become chic again, but why not?

Automobiles are obviously the way to go. By and large, most of Americans' vacation and destination travel is within 300 miles of home. So this [current situation] is probably a way to sort of rethink how we approach seeing our country. This is the way we did it when we were growing up. When I traveled with my parents, when I was growing up and 14, 15, 16 years old, I didn't go by plane. I went by bus, I went by car, and I went by rail.

For those of us who would like to travel, this seems an opportune time to find some great deals. Any advice for bargain hunters?

The bargains that are out there are primarily going to try to get Americans to get on a plane and go to Europe or to Asia. The thing for Americans to realize is that once they get to Europe or to Asia, there aren't any bargains, because folks in those regions are not feeling the fear factor that we are. For instance, if you try to go from Shanghai to Seoul, those planes are full. There are no deals on those plane fares.

Yes, there are bargains, but be flexible. You have to be adventurous. If you really want to take advantage of these uncertain times, you have to put your fear aside, you have to be flexible, and you have to be willing to follow the money, so to speak. In other words, you may want to go to Paris, but that's not where the bargains are necessarily going to be. But they may be in Bali, if you're willing to go. And it's probably just as safe to go to Bali right now as it is to stay here in Washington, D.C.

It's now more important than ever for travelers to be well informed. What kinds of information should people arm themselves with?

My advice to a traveler is: If you're concerned about what it's like on the ground, talk to people on the ground. For instance, if you're going to Prague, go online and look at the Prague Post. Most American media are very inward-looking. They interpret the world through their own, somewhat limited, periscope. So what you should do, if you're interested in going somewhere, is to tap into the local media—you'll get the truth.

What precautions can travelers take to protect themselves, both physically and financially, in these uncertain times?

Right now, most of the travel industry is being very flexible. The cruise industry, for instance, is saying, "OK, you booked a cruise and you don't want to go now. You can come back a year from now and we'll honor that." So you're going to find a lot of flexibility out there, but before you book anything, make sure that you ask the question, "How flexible are you? How locked-in am I on this particular deal?"

The second thing is to really try to figure out by reading local media what's happening politically, what's happening socially, what the weather is like, what's going on with the currency. It's more important now than ever to understand the context that you're entering into when you go to a foreign place.

The third thing, and I think this is really important, is to be self-sufficient. So make sure that you have the right medicine, make sure that you have your safety kit, if you will. Make sure that you're as self-reliant as you can possibly be.

The fourth thing, I would say, is don't advertise that you're an American. That could be harder for some of us than others, but in my experience, when you walk down the Champs-Élysées and you see 45 people coming toward you, you know who the American is—and so do most other people.

Any observations from your own travel experiences on the changing environment that travelers have been encountering since September 11?

Our lives have changed dramatically, and that's no news to anybody, but we have to consider differently how we navigate the travel experience. I don't think we understand right now how that's going to manifest itself a year or two from now. But I think that how we travel in America has fundamentally changed. And some of it's for the good. We've spent most of our lives flying over places that we're now going to move through. So you think about those little communities, the blue highways, the off-the-beaten-track places that we didn't visit because we could fly over them. Now we're going to reengage, and I think that's a good thing.

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