Another Way to View the World: Exploring Cartograms
Here at Kango we love maps. Whether it be global or local, the map is where travel dreams begin their transition into becoming reality.
Here’s a standard political map of the world:
You likely remember seeing a similar version (who remembers the Soviet Union?) posted up on a wall in your junior high history class. Not all that exciting right?
Now imagine that instead of mapping the countries by area, they are measured by another variable (i.e. GDP, population, HIV prevalence), in turn distorting their geometries. I find these deformed maps are a great way to better visualize world statistics and grasp just how different (often alarmingly!) lifestyle, economy, and consumption are from country to country around the globe.
For the first of a weekly series focusing on these maps, I am going to stick close to travel and explore a Tourist Destinations cartogram using data from 2003.
Initial thoughts…
- Over 665 million international trips were made in 2003 for holiday and touring purposes. With a global population of roughly 6.3 billion in 2003, and assuming that some individuals took multiple trips, less than 10% of people around the world crossed borders for leisure.
- Western Europe was the region of choice for 46% of travelers. Traveling across European borders is friendly and contagious. The standard EU currency (Euro) and the ease of transportation (Eurail and modern freeways) promote intra-Europe travel. With luxury hotels and hostels, museums and nude beaches, Western Europe is an obvious destination for travelers of all ages. Many European cultures designate August as a month to travel.
- Conversely, Central Africa received less than .1% of the world’s total tourism. Transportation around Central Africa is dated, harsh, and potentially dangerous. Rough terrain, including the Sahara Desert and vast jungles, make up much of Central Africa.
- The Bahamas and Caribbean archipelago, obvious island destinations, receive tourism from the US, Western Europe and South America.
- Hong Kong, a country less than 1/3 the size of Rhode Island in land mass, is HUGE, living up to its tagline of “Asia’s World City”.
What are your reactions? Do your international travel plans reflect this map? How do you think it will look in 10, 50 years?
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13 Responses
Provocative post. Yes, I like maps too — especially when they show me something in a new light, as your examples do.
What will the travel maps look like in 20 years? Well, it depends on if the travel industry continues to grow as it has been for the past 30 years. Also, there will be those travelers who seek out the “virgin venues,” so that some of those smaller areas in your above example will gain some size.
What if, instead, travel is demonized as needless burning of fossil fuels that create more carbon and global warming? There would be probably be a high travel tax, and you’d likely get a different map.
Good luck to you and your many readers!
P.S. I liked your earlier lengthy “map” post that had three or four different applications. Would it be possible to re-post those as four different posts? It would be a lot easier to refer to them later individually.
Very interesting topic! My holiday is about to start (6 days left). I leave in Romania (Central Europe) and I am planning to spend about 10 days in the Netherlands and 3 more in Buglaria, on the seaside. Reasons for the Netherlands? Easy, within reach, friends that I must see. Resons for the Bulgarian seaside? Quite easy, again, cheaper than the Romanian seaside and really clean and quiet.
The map of the future? I guess it will change a bit. If I take my own example, my near future plans include Europe again, more of Asia (I’ve only seen a small part of Turkey) and some of Africa. But that is just personal, business trips are a different story
great, I love this map. However, I don’t think Australia is that small,
btw, hongkong is not a country
Your map is a great visual tool to see where people travel. Look how big the Caribbean Islands are. I’d like to see a map that reflects where people travel from. I’d also like to see one of the United States similar to the one above. Do people actually vacation in Arkansas and North Dakota?
Regarding the future, I am currently traveling in Russia. New hotels are being built in Moscow (4 Seasons, Ritz Carlton) to accommodate expected tourists. Twenty years ago I would not have come here to visit due to the political situation. On this trip we are only seeing Moscow and St. Petersburg. Given the size of the country, more areas may open to tourism which would increase travel.
Other areas I’d like to visit include Iran and Kashmir. I wonder when these will be safe for American visitors.
I look forward to more of these maps!
The map is just great
Provocative post. Yes, I like maps too — especially when they show me something in a new light, as your examples do.
Fascinating concept.
Europe looks like the pot-belly of tourist destinations. But I wonder how many of those “46% of travellers” to Western Europe were from outside Europe.
I think this would be more helpful if the intra-Western Europe travel was excluded. I can’t believe that France has as many non European tourists as the US has TOTAL tourists!
I was also surprised to see how small Australia and NZ were on the map. Anyway, theses maps are totally cool!
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