I learned more about the world travelling than I did in school – restricting the industry is a bad idea

Let's invest in green aviation technologies now, because without travel we are all poorer

Seeing the scale of the imposing barbed wire wall bordering Palestine, covered in personal messages and pleas, is something I’ll never forget. As are the bullet holes in Beirut’s buildings, and meeting the people camping out on Skid Row in Los Angeles, a few miles from some of the most expensive real estate in the world.

The industry may be under attack, but accessible, inexpensive travel has taught me more about the world than my East London school or British university ever did.

In my early 20s, struggling to get a job, I took a gamble and went looking for work in Asia, where the pace of business was staggering – and countless opportunities presented themselves. Back then, anyone with enough money for a flight could do the same. I lived in three regions across the globe for a decade, knowing I was still connected to home – if I needed to, I could hop on a plane and visit my family.

I learned alternative versions of history, about tolerance, acceptance, inequality, wars, class and poverty. In cramped sprawling cities, with the same population as half of England, I learned that access to nature is fundamental for mental health. I learned how people suffer and thrive behind the Bamboo Curtain. I experienced high-taxation societies that worked like well-oiled machines and those that didn’t. I experienced un-liveable countries – where being female with blonde hair was an unshakable invitation for harassment and abuse. I learned the true value of state healthcare, having been treated in both a roadside shack and an American emergency room – where I gave up my credit card before explaining my ailment.

I’ve seen the determination, grit and resilience of communities without unemployment benefits and free education. The communities that rely solely on tourism, and have been devastated by the pandemic. I’ve seen environmental disasters, been sick after surfing in polluted waters, and visited villages wrecked by industrialisation. I’ve shared countless stories that, without travel, wouldn’t have been heard.

The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report has cast a shadow over the travel industry. While it’s obvious cutting emissions is of critical importance, and I fully support doing so, the murmurings about legislating travel are deeply worrying. We’ve just seen Australia enact laws as strict as North Korea on travel, due to fears over coronavirus. Australians now have to apply for permission to leave their own country. This draconian policy sets a dangerous precedent for worldwide movement.

There’s more at stake here than a cheap tan, we must think very carefully before we erode our freedom of movement, for the climate or otherwise.

One solution is to urgently invest in low and zero carbon aircraft technologies at the same speed as other green technologies, like the electric car industry. Higher aviation taxes have been mooted as a possible solution to cutting aviation emissions, but the only people who will suffer from higher fuel costs and other tariffs are the working classes – those who could benefit from global opportunities the most. The privileged will simply pay more for their trips abroad – reaping the benefits of access, opportunities and culture that travel provides.

Instead of “flight shaming” people into not travelling, we should be creating more sustainable, mind-broadening overseas alternatives. We shouldn’t be closing ourselves off from the rest of the world, but engaging with those in need of climate support and helping the communities most reliant on travel. The antidote to an increasingly xenophobic Britain is more cultural exchange, more green travel, not less.

The effect of no travel will not just be felt abroad but at home too. The pandemic has urged me to stick to my zone-three London neighbourhood, but with more people vaccinated and the capital’s big attractions back open, I recently took my son to a matinee in central London.

We travelled on an eerily empty tube during mid-morning to avoid ‘rush hour’ and arrived in Piccadilly Circus. As any Londoner knows, this is tourist central. On a typical August day, the place would be buzzing with people snapping pictures of Regent’s Street, dozens of languages echoing through the air, people queuing for attractions and museums, and crowds of exchange students blocking the pavements. London welcomes diversity.

This area of the capital usually teams with life. But it was dead. Unnerving. Almost apocalyptic. After our half-full theatre show – again, strange during the peak summer season with kids out of school and travellers normally in their droves – we had lunch at an almost empty restaurant and began our journey home. There were two other passengers in our Tube carriage. London without tourists is a scary prospect, how are businesses going to survive?

Livelihoods are at stake, those living from paycheque to paycheque, or making nothing at all thanks to Covid, don’t have the luxury of future planning. We need to stop attacking the industry and invest in green technologies now, because without travel we are all poorer.