Leisure travel is still the privilege of those from rich countries

“It’s easy to forget that travel is a privilege enjoyed by the citizens of the world’s richest nations. Per capita, the Swiss make the most international trips, followed by the Dutch, the English, the Canadians, and the Germans (Americans place tenth). Large swaths of humanity — Israelis and Palestinians; Thai women and Caribbean men; North Koreans and Arabs — have enormous difficulty obtaining visas and crossing borders. Small wonder that the travelogue is a genre dominated by white Europeans and North Americans. For an Iranian woman, travel writing just isn’t a viable career path.”
–Taras Grescoe, The End of Elsewhere (2003)