2023 was a turbulent year, with international political unrest, inflation-led economic woes, and climatic anomalies causing many Americans to rethink their travel plans, both local and overseas. Despite that, 40% of people intend to travel more in 2024, with nearly as many looking to increase their travel spending.
Of course, the nature of travel has dramatically shifted over the last few years, with many opting for workations to make the most of remote working arrangements. All these emerging trends signal an important factor—more people are prioritizing travel for reasons other than relaxation.
This hardly comes as a surprise when you consider the often not-so-obvious perks of exploring new cultures, cities, and countries, particularly when it comes to achieving professional success.
How Traveling Can Improve Connections and Lead to Success
Whether you are planning for a longer overseas vacation or a low-budget cross-country road trip, your travel experiences can change you as a professional in more ways than you may realize.
Here are some of the benefits of traveling that could be pivotal in achieving your career goals.
Expanding Your Network
Relationships are vital for succeeding in any profession. Your personal and professional networks can open doors to new opportunities—from finding jobs and meeting potential clients to identifying new business ventures and sourcing innovative products.
One way to expand your network is traveling.
The fact is, whether you are backpacking off the beaten path or relaxing on a luxury cruise, you are bound to meet new people and build valuable connections.
The locals you interact with to gain a deeper understanding of a city and travelers you bond with while exploring unfamiliar territory could all potentially enhance your network for professional success.
Improving Cultural Understanding
Traveling exposes you to unique cultures, practices, beliefs, and ways of life, which can significantly broaden your views and perspectives. It will help you become open-minded, develop greater empathy toward those from backgrounds and personal circumstances different from yours, and cultivate a deeper understanding and appreciation of diversity.
This enables you to have more meaningful conversations with colleagues, clients, and potential business partners and nurture stronger and more fruitful connections.
At a broader level, it can also equip you to tread overseas markets and access opportunities at an international level.
Developing New Interests
An important benefit of traveling is exposure to new experiences. You get to step out of your comfort zone and try cultural and recreational activities you have not encountered before.
This will enrich your attitudes, perspectives, and preferences, enabling you to develop new interests and hobbies that let you connect with and nurture relationships with those who could support your career growth.
For instance, unique experiences and interests make excellent conversation starters and icebreakers, and shared ones can easily make way for bonding and building a stronger rapport.
Strengthening Essential Soft Skills
Traveling sharpens certain soft skills that are vital for career success.
These can include:
- Planning & Organizing
A vacation demands substantial planning. You must research destinations beforehand, identify the best time to travel, compare hotel rates and options, find the most convenient connecting flights, create an itinerary aligned with your schedule and interests, and manage your trip within a pre-determined budget.
These are the activities you must attend to at the most basic level. Preparing for and going on a vacation could involve a lot more complex tasks, depending on the nature of your trip.
For example, if you are going on a road trip, you must ensure your car can endure the journey, select the best route to take based on weather, road conditions, distance, and a variety of factors, identify gas stations and pit stops along the way, and plan for enough breaks to get some rest.
And if you are traveling with kids, you must determine the essentials to pack on their behalf, prepare a few entertainment options, make necessary arrangements at the hotel for their safety and comfort, pre-schedule activities they may enjoy at the destination, and get everyone ready to catch the flights on time.
All these require considerable planning, organizing, and time management skills for a smooth journey. What you learn and develop could help you not only in your personal life but in your workplace, too.
- Resilience and Adaptability
No amount of planning can help you anticipate and avoid the unexpected. And a vacation will have plenty of these.
During your travels, you are bound to encounter new cultures, practices, and situations. There is also a possibility that things might not unfold as planned. You will naturally be pushed out of your comfort zone, requiring you to become adaptable and resilient to make the most of your trip.
- Creativity
New experiences you gain during your travels enable you to acquire fresh perspectives, think outside the box, and become more resourceful.
De-stressing and relaxing could also result in improved creativity, which often gets stifled due to work fatigue.
- Communication
When traveling in unfamiliar cities and countries, you make an extra effort to prevent misunderstandings in communications.
For instance, you become more conscious about expressing yourself with clarity, listen actively and pay attention to what others are saying, and develop empathy and respect toward those around you. These are undoubtedly essential factors for effective communication in the workplace.
Final Thoughts
The benefits of traveling for improving connections and achieving your professional goals are irrefutable.
However, it is important to take proactive steps to make the most of your travels for career success. Active networking is pivotal for this. For instance, give out your business card to share contact details with those you would like to keep in touch.
Being approachable is also critical for making others feel comfortable conversing and interacting with you. Smile, make eye contact, pay attention to your body language, and be friendly yet respectful.
Once you get back, remember to drop an email to the important contacts you have made or find their social media profiles on Nuwber to connect with them on LinkedIn.
If you are visiting a non-English-speaking country, learn a few words and phrases in the local language. This would help you build better rapport with locals.
Finally, don’t hesitate to go out of your comfort zone and remember to take genuine interest in others.
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