Travel is a Luxury.
When I say “Ang dami kong time” when I post a new video, I lie. The truth is: 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞. Yes, despite not being able to travel at all. Yes, despite being cooped up at home the entire time.
Over the past several months, we had to work twice or thrice as hard to get even just a fraction of the traffic or earnings that we previously enjoyed. Travel bloggers, after all, are part of the tourism industry.
The upside, these have been our most productive months yet. It forced us to finally pick up projects we set aside for the longest time and prioritize channels or content that we would NEVER have touched otherwise. We learned a lot not just in terms of creating content but also running a business in the middle of a nightmarish crisis. Thankfully, medyo nagsa-start na kami mag-bounce back, so yay. Things are starting to look up for us.
But there’s one thing that this pandemic has demonstrated in sobering clarity. It’s something we have always known, acknowledged, and reminded our readers about on our blogs. But COVID-19 hammered it home — 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐋 𝐈𝐒 𝐀 𝐋𝐔𝐗𝐔𝐑𝐘. Even budget travel.
In the travel world, it’s always easy to say, “If we can do it, you can too,” in an effort to sound inspirational. But it’s not always true.
The truth is, we’re not on a level playing field. There are millions of people out there who are way off the field, out in the water, drowning. Tayo, we complain that we had to cancel our trips or that we’re bored, but there are a lot of people out there who are struggling to find a job or find food to put on the table. While some of us watch our savings deplete, others have nothing to start with. They had nothing even before this pandemic reared its ugly head.
It has been extremely exhausting for ALL OF US, yes, but for some, it has been utterly devastating.
It’s easy to forget the privileges we enjoy when we get so used to it. Like travel. I know this because I forget, too. Probably a lot more than I would like to admit.
La lang. Di ko rin alam ang point nitong post na ‘to. Maybe to remind myself that after we come out of this pandemic, I’d be more aware and more compassionate both as a traveler and as a human being?
Just something that I’ve been ruminating on over the past months. Ayun, sana talaga matapos na. 🙏