One simple reason why travel is important

Travel makes you a better reader, especially for history, geography, (factual) economics, and political science.

I have been reading two good books about Sri Lanka, namely K.M. de Silva’s Sri Lanka and the Defeat of the LTTE and also his A History of Sri Lanka.  Both would be very difficult to follow if I didn’t already have a decent sense of the place names, how the country “fits together,” and many other features of life here.  If I read about a 12th century Buddhist kingdom, in fact I absorb and retain much more of that knowledge if I have visited the ruins of said kingdom.  It is more intellectually and emotionally salient to me, whether or not that process is rational.

In part you visit places simply to make your later reading about them more productive.

And there is nowhere in the world that is not a place.

Addendum: This effect is not a small one.  If a said civilization has vanished, or is almost entirely gone, that is also an enormous blow to our reading.  It is so much easier to keep track of “the Florentines” than “the Assyrians.”  There is also a question of optimal timing — don’t read about a place too early!  Yet some early reading is necessary, so that you may develop the curiosity to want to go there.