Young musicians to be trained in ‘purposeful travel’
NewsFrom a Canadian press release:
Banff Centre is proud to present the first annual Purposeful Travel Summit on February 14th and 15th, 2023. The Purposeful Travel Summit will launch a new era in travel that integrates sustainability, education, and a passion to promote travel that contributes to a better world.
Travel is essential to our growth and well-being, as well as to the livelihood of communities worldwide. Purposeful Travel encourages visitors and host destinations to be intentional in the experiences they seek and provide. It encourages engagement and awareness in everything we do. This summit will specifically explore the key values of People, Planet, Place, and Pace.
Megan Epler Wood is the Principal Instructor and Managing Director of Cornell University’s Sustainable Tourism Asset Management Program, and has recently launched a new online program on Sustainable Tourism Destination Management. Her work on the “Invisible Burden”, the unaccounted-for costs to manage tourism, demonstrates that tourism is frequently undermining the quality of the environment and socio-cultural systems of the people and places where tourism development is the most common. Purposeful Travel recognizes that a different approach is needed, including new forms of management and governance.
TV host and travel writer, Rick Steves, will deliver a digital keynote address during the summit based on his extensive experience. The perspective that he will share is based on his belief that “the aim of travel should be to create better global citizens, and a global citizen does their best work at home.”
Why can’t they just say:
“We should consider whether a trip is necessary”?
Huh? OK and thanks, but I won’t attend due to travel. And Rick Steves as a keynote speaker, they might want to rethink that….
‘Her work on the “Invisible Burden”, the unaccounted-for costs to manage tourism, demonstrates that tourism is frequently undermining the quality of the environment and socio-cultural systems of the people and places where tourism development is the most common.’
Tourism undoubtedly does all sorts of damage in the ways she mentions. The problem is it’s always other people who are tourists.
Oh my god, what save-the-world dribble. And a load of buffalo bagles.
It’s just far-from-the-real-world (that pays the BILLS) malarkey: …global citizen does best work at home!!! The increasingly insistent call of key CEOs for employees to get back to the office AND travel only when necessary (for budget reasons) is evident in Starbucks‘ CEO Howard Schultz comments yesterday. (Check out today’s report on Bloomberg and MSNBC on this topic.)
Let’s put aside this Banff (love the ritzy central venue with easy access) conference: MUSIC is what this site is about. I would welcome NOT seeing the same “famous” 2-3 singers sing key operatic roles wherever I go. Be it London, NYC, Buenos Aires, Munich, Paris, etc., etc. A bit less travel here, a little more Intendant risk-taking there, and we’d have more younger/newer/interesting singers get a chance as well as a bit less contribution by music to the world’s contrails.
So everyone has to travel to Banff to hear about the perils of traveling? Hmm…that makes sense…
“It encourages engagement and awareness in everything we do.”
How extremely tiring. Like being in Stalin’s Soviet. Every field of society is covered in politics. Not an inch which can not be connected to politics.
Is there a place I can pay for indulgence and go on as before?
I can travel because i worth it, you should stay home because you don’t…. next -ism regime after communism and fascism will be green
100% correct. And when you trade your personal responsibilities and decision-making to the state don’t be surprised if you get the gift of tyranny. That path is well underway. Covid in Canada its first insidious hint.
All of this sounds rather highfalutin but I do suspect that young musicians on the brink of a real career could well stand to learn some things about the toll that travel takes on one’s energies and concentration, whether it is travel to concert dates or to auditions. I certainly learned those lessons about business travel the hard way when too much travel was crammed into too short a time for recovery between trips. And that was just now and then, not a regular part of my life.
I have been reading the newly revised biography of violinist Maud Powell and certainly it is made clear that the days of travel by train took a serious toll on her as her career took off and engagements began to accumulate. It very likely shortened her life.
I recall reading that early in his career violinist Mischa Elman would study his concert tour itinerary and carefully try to arrange recital stops along the way in smaller towns, to avoid long extended stays on board the train. It didn’t matter how successful the recitals were financially because he was going that way anyway and the income if any was pure gravy. Maybe Mischa was the pioneer of Purposeful Travel!
And I suspect some of the small towns that heard Elman and Powell have not heard a comparable concert artist since.
Orwellian Canada. Shudder.
This event is NOT for “young musicians to be trained in purposeful travel”. This is for tourism industry professionals, such as hoteliers, tour operators and service providers.
This is not connected any music program at the Banff Centre.
Going out to buy some oil and vinegar to make some dressing for that word salad.