I think we're starting to see travel fatigue. When the author was backpacking 20 years ago, there was still enough friction in movement and communication that travel had some mystique. You weren't connected to the rest of the world 24/7 through constant internet access on your phone.

Back then, friends' stories from a trips abroad were a bit exotic. Now, we're less impressed by travel. You can get a $300 airfare from the East Coast of the US to Europe, making a trip to Barcelona as easy and cheap as a weekend jaunt to Chicago. We've all seen a million photos of places that you went, in much higher quality via Instagram and YouTube.

Reminds me of this post: https://markmanson.net/the-death-of-tourism

> Trends will move on and the younger generations will one day make fun of their millennial parents/aunts/uncles for wasting their money on trips to Burning Man and Tulum, and the more the tourism industry will suffer. Not to mention the backlash from the environmental/climate/cultural considerations mentioned above. I think Millennials were the “peak travel” generation and we’re going to appear lame and crusty just like our parents’ obsession with McMansions in the suburbs seems lame to us.

Then again, apparently this will be the biggest tourism summer ever (given pent-up demand due to COVID), so what do I know.