Travel Joy Volume 1

Global Travel Excellence emerges when travel success aligns with travel meaning and when competencies are consistent with values. This insight - derived from the experience and insights of the best traveled man on the planet - is developed across five volumes. The three initial ideas - Travel Joy, the entire world, and efficiency - are evolved into a coherent philosophical framework and, in Volume 2, translated into a practical roadmap to success.
Volume 1 substantiates this claim by addressing the questions of why and what for - the necessary conditions for success. The feasibility of the concept is demonstrated in Volume 2 by answering where and how - the sufficient conditions for success.
As the foundation of all five volumes, this book defines the travel philosophy that enabled 6,000 objectively and specifically defined highlights to be experienced within 12 years. These experiences were transformed into insight through a systematic and reflective travel life. The philosophy is internally coherent and has evolved from a model of the world into a model for action and success. Joy as the driving force and ethics as an obligation establish a universal and sustainable framework for global travel.
The usual understanding of the entire world as the sum of all countries is expanded by two additional dimensions. First, the essentials of the world are captured in 6,000 objectively defined highlights. Second, the world is structured through a taxonomy of 1,500 categories. Together, these dimensions redefine the entire world and establish the benchmark for a travel life - potentially spanning 20 years - made attainable through a careful balance of travel quality and travel efficiency.
The essence of travel is captured in four characteristics: Meaning of travel, reason for travel, destination, and travel style. Volume 1 focuses on the meaning of travel and introduces nine categories of meaning: Diversity, insight, cultivation, well-being, intensity of life, performance limit, spirituality, personal responsibility, and self-experience. Travel excellence pursued throughout a travel life is achieved when all categories of meaning have been experienced.
Success is evaluated through four criteria: quality, efficiency, joy, and harmony. Over time, values may evolve toward the increasing significance of ethics - as a code of values, as conduct, and as a binding commitment. The concept remains open to individual interpretation and personal fulfillment.