Are you a travel addict? How bloggers, influencers and writers are coping with coronavirus lockdown
- For some, travel is all about self-esteem, for others, it’s the adventure or a way to make a living
- The current global lockdown has halted the travel industry and travel addicts are finding ways to cope
Do you suspect you miss travelling more than your friends and family do? You could be suffering from a condition called dromomania – literally an uncontrollable urge to walk or wander, also used by psychologists to describe travel addiction.
“There is a tendency to resent travel addicts and the well-travelled – or over-travelled – for their attitudes and behaviours,” says Dr Michael Brein, a Washington-based psychologist who specialises in travel psychology.
“Sympathy seems to depend on how ‘legitimate' people think the work is,” says California-based Valerie Stimac, a travel journalist and author for Lonely Planet whose travel blog Valerie & Valise (valisemag.com) has dropped about 90 per cent in traffic – as many such blogs have since the pandemic began. Stimac, a confessed travel addict, has noticed a backlash against social media influencers complaining that their income streams have dried-up. “For people who are just personally addicted to travel as a habit, I think most people seem to say ‘suck it up’ – we have to stay home to save lives,” says Stimac.
Brein says that travel is how some people most easily develop self-esteem and self-confidence. “A travel addict is one whose life is primarily driven by the need and presumed drive to continually experience the novelty and excitement of new places,” he says. “We all know people who seem to be on a continuous quest to travel more and more and, in rare cases, these travellers seem to be continuously moving about to new places.”
