4 ways travel can boost your child’s development — studies

MANILA, Philippines — Revenge travel is on the rise, especially this coming holiday season.

People are excited to make up for lost time travel time, no thanks to the pandemic, which kept them home for three years.  

The Department of Tourism reported a 91.6% hike in tourism receipts from April to September 2021 versus the same period in 2020.

Hotels and resorts are fully booked. Long lines are forming in airports, and the industry is hard put to meet the surging demand with enough people to attend to the needs of a growing number of travelers.

But there’s no stopping people from packing their bags and visiting travel destinations. There’s no stopping families from brushing the dust off their passports and taking the gang to places near and far.

The trend has its perks. AXA Philippines Chief Customer Officer Nandy Villar shared, “Studies have shown that traveling is an important experience not only for learning and development but also for overall wellbeing and mental health."

Children are among the biggest winners. Experts say travel spurs their development. Here’s how:

Broadens perspectives

Sociologist and education professor Jack Mezirow said new environments boost transformative learning. Exposure to various languages, cultures, art and others challenge and transforms a child’s assumptions and beliefs. That’s because travel makes children interact with all kinds of people. This opens their minds and strengthens cross-cultural understanding.

Arms them with important life skills

Children face situations that let them develop and practice soft skills in a real-life setting, like proper communication, teamwork, problem solving, patience and others.

Sparks creativity and imagination

Child psychologists said travel activates children’s “play” and “seek” brain systems, as discovered by Professor Jaak Panksepp, Washington State University’s renowned neuroscientist. By making your child explore and play more, this trains them to be more open to new ideas as they grow.

Strengthens family bonds

Nothing creates and cements bonds more than shared family experiences. Travel is an opportunity to understand and connect with the family, and make lasting memories.

So go ahead, travel with the kids while they’re still jumping for joy that you’re taking them with you. They’ll have their own travel companions when they grow up. Then, you can look back at family snaps that prove that you had the time of your life taking them to adventures and new experiences that broadened their minds and helped them grow.

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