Travel ≠ Transformation Many may agree with Ganesh’s final point: travel doesn’t automatically lead to empathy or open mindedness. A two week trip to Tuscany doesn’t necessarily shake someone's worldview. Superficial tourism can reinforce stereotypes more than it dissolves them. Travel as consumption is different from travel as cultural exchange.

Echo Chambers Abroad Stackers might also point out that global travel today is more curated than ever. Tourists often remain within familiar cultural bubbles luxury resorts, English speaking tours, Instagrammable spots limiting meaningful engagement with other cultures. Travel can even become a kind of national performance abroad, not a challenge to it.

The Filter Effect Ganesh's suggestion that liberal minded people are driving the travel boom resonates. Internationalism among cosmopolitan elites is rising, but that doesn’t reach or sway large nationalist voter blocs at home. The most insular may remain so both physically and ideologically.

Nationalism ≠ Isolationism Many Stackers might emphasize that modern nationalism doesn’t always mean disengagement from the world it can coexist with travel and global commerce. A nationalist might enjoy tapas in Madrid while still voting for hard borders at home. Travel and ideology aren’t necessarily in tension.

Historical Perspective The reference to Europe is apt centuries of intermingling didn’t stop war or xenophobia. Empires, trade, and colonization involved massive cross border movement with no utopian result. The “kumbayah” ideal of travel may be a postwar liberal invention.