Ready To Travel

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Title – Ready To Travel
Source – The Times
Date – 15th April 2008

Read the statistics in this article and it might put you off travel completely, a total of 394 deaths between Thailand, India and Australia each year. But these countries received nearly 2 million visitors and in total across the world only 230,000 people took gap years. So how do these figures add up? Most of the deaths in these statistics were from natural causes, older travellers visiting relatives or ‘retiring’ to these popular destinations. It is true that some statistics put ‘serious incidents’ happening to gap year students as high as 1 in 4, but don’t be scared of statistics like these thrown in without context. The vast majority of gap years pass off without incident and those taking gap years come back with experiences, skills and confidence that enhance the rest of their lives.

Travelling is ‘never’ without risk; but a better description is that travel is ‘not without increased risk’ as our lives already involve risk every day. But in our everyday lives we manage risk effectively. When we cross the road, we look left and we look right, we manage the risk. The same should be the case when we travel, if we are visiting countries where standards are very different we have to learn quickly and prepare well to manage the additional risk that these differences may present.

A good example of this is road transport. In the UK it is heavily regulated. Speed limits are strictly controlled as are all other rules of the road, the roads are ‘well’ maintained, people have to pass a strict test to qualify for a licence to drive and our vehicles are maintained through MOTs. This is certainly not always the case in other countries; especially developing countries where there is simply not the investment available to enforce these strict standards; in some countries there seem to be no rules at all. Here local knowledge is essential and choosing your driver, vehicle carefully reduces the risk considerably, but you have to know what to look for in the first place, where does that knowledge come from?

Risks have to always be put into context, they are undoubtedly greater when travelling, but managed correctly they are easily outweighed by the rewards. Gap Year and Independent Travel is undoubtedly an experience that helps individuals to ‘grow’ to ‘mature’ to change the direction of their lives and to enhance their future opportunities. It is an opportunity that when presented should not be missed. Certainly it should not be missed because of fear of the risks, maybe changes need to be made to original plans if they were unsuitable for any reason, but change and not cancellation is the key. Don’t cancel a trip, prepare for it and manage the risks so they are reduced to ‘acceptable’ levels.

Travel is not meant to always be easy, but it is also not meant to be so difficult it takes away the fun. Ultimately it has to be fun, ultimately you have to have amazing experiences and ultimately there have to be some challenges. The ultimate goal is that your time passes off without incident and a substantial part of that is down to you. It is always surprising the number of incidents that happen to independent travellers that are wholly avoidable by taking precautions that would not take anything away from the experience itself.

Our Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety and Awareness workshop can help you to gain the essential skills and knowledge to set you on your way to a safer more fulfilling travel experience. Our travel specialists have two things in common they love talking about travel and they love travelling. People setting off on a gap year or independent travel experience need to prepare before they leave and not assume that general life experience in the UK prepares them in any way for the day they find themselves lost in northern Sumatra in a small town where no one speaks any English in the middle of the monsoon season; I guarantee there is nothing you have experienced in the UK or that your parents may have taught you that will prepare you for that; and I should know, it has happened to me!

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