Chapter 3 - Section I-III Summary and Analysis

In chapter three, Boorstin explores the changing nature of travel and its impact on the creation of pseudo-events. He states that one of the main ways that this happens is through the expectation that the "exotic" can be made common and yet still retain the nature of being exotic. What this expectation leads to is commoditization, in this case of the experience of travelling. The trip is advertised as exotic, but by the very nature of having been created and packaged in advance is anything but exotic. There is very little risk, encounters with difference, or even feelings of not being safe.

Boorstin suggests that in the past travelers helped to inspire great movements in thought, art, and ways of living. However, in the current form, travel has been reduced to a passive experience, much...