by Presley Hughes, reporter

Traveling to different areas of the world can benefit young and developing minds. Some of these benefits include the knowledge of cultural differences within other countries, gaining a knowledge of different types of learning styles and fostering an appreciation or understanding of cultural diversity.

How many times does the average American travel to other countries? According to the Pew Research Center, “around 3 million American citizens traveled outside of the country within the past month.” This number went down over the past 4 years, compared to the 4 million citizens who traveled abroad during the Covid-19 pandemic and the 8 million citizens that traveled abroad during March in 2019 before the pandemic.

According to the WYSE Travel Confederation, Gen Z is within the highest marking age bracket to have teenagers travel abroad before the age of 18. Around 50% of the American teenager population traveled internationally before the age of 17. Close to 25% of American teenagers are also known to travel internationally by the age of 8.

According to the District of Columbia Public Library, the most common regret with teenagers breaching adulthood included the decision to stay within the United States when faced with the opportunity to travel abroad. These opportunities either arose from studying abroad within their high school or personal travel with family and friends.

Safe and traveler-friendly areas and countries exist for teenagers, but the most common countries traveled include Mexico, the United Kingdom and Canada.

Young people find it hard to understand jargon, travel, food and everyday activities. Some ways to help make these negative outlooks positive is using language-learning apps to help them understand and speak other languages and researching the everyday activities of the country.

Money can be another reason why people choose not to travel. While traveling can be very expensive at times, there are other alternatives for cheaper traveling, such as finding flights that are going out at later or earlier times when others are less likely to want to travel.

Whether teenagers are looking for a fun vacation or looking for a learning experience, travelling can be one of the best ways to diversify a young person’s mind.