EdOdyssey sat down with Brendan Hughes, the author of the upcoming book The Wandering Investor, to discuss the travel experience and how times have changed in the era of COVID-19.

Q: Tell us about your background.

A: My lifelong love for travel spawned when I was in college attending James Madison University. While I didn’t realize it at the time, my study abroad experience in Antwerp, Belgium (if you have the means to do it make sure you study abroad while still in school!) where I was fortunate enough to visit about 10 European countries along the way changed my life forever.

I firmly believe that travel is the single best way to learn, as you get real firsthand knowledge of how the world really works in other cultures. I currently work as an Investment Advisor for Lafayette Investments and have 8 years of professional experience in the Finance field.

I have made it a priority to go on 1-2 international trips a year, as it keeps me well grounded in developments going on around the world in addition to the enjoyment factor I get from the experience. I spent the last 5 years working on a book titled The Wandering Investor; details about the book can be found at the end of this article.

Q: Why do you consider traveling such a good investment?

A: There is no better way in the world to learn than to immerse yourself in another culture, especially if that culture materially diverges from your daily life. Reading is obviously a great way to learn but when you are observing the way of life in another country you will find that you will learn things that you weren’t even intending to seek information about.

For example, walking into a store and observing the sales tactics of the associates will tell you a lot about the local people and culture. In Peru, you will find that salesmen will often use a sales approach where the worker tries to make a sale by telling the customer a story about the origins of a particular product.

This sales style contrasts sharply with Moroccan sales culture where the underlying premise is basically to aggressively engage the potential customer until they ultimately give in and make a purchase. It is things like this that you can really only learn from experiencing different local cultures and I don’t believe there is a substitute.

Q: What are your thoughts on travel in the era of COVID-19?

A: I think you will see permanent reductions in travel in some areas such as business travel where employers are suddenly re-thinking sending employees to another city for a 1 hour meeting that can arguably be handled with a video conference call. From an everyday consumer perspective, it is difficult to say at this time how it will play out because there are so many uncertainties as to when a COVID-19 vaccine will become widely available and how quickly consumers will begin traveling at levels seen prior to the COVID-19 outbreak (if ever).

Some of the recent projections show that air travel won’t reach pre- pandemic levels until 2023 or 2024 but nobody really has any idea where we will be a few years from now. What I can say with high confidence is that the value proposition of total international cultural immersion is stronger than ever and I don’t see that changing in the future. I can understand the logic behind a reduction in business travel for meetings that could be handled with a short video conference, but it is a completely different ball game when you are talking about areas such as study abroad.

If students decided to only opt for a virtual study abroad experience in place of actually living internationally for a semester or summer program, I think they would be missing out on the highest value added parts of the educational experience. You aren’t going to get the life lessons in terms of observations about things such as local sales tactics which in my opinion is where the bulk of the value of the entire idea of study abroad is derived.

The Wandering Investor Book Description:

This book takes the reader on a unique journey around the world in a discussion about various economies, my personal adventures along the way, business outlooks and observations for each country, lists of recommended activities in each country with a focus on outdoor adventure experiences, and lessons learned in terms of both travel and business.

Given my experience as an investment advisor and what I would consider to be a deep knowledge base when it comes to global adventure excursions, I believe this writing provides a much different perspective than your average travel or investment book. It reads like a thriller in detailing extreme activities such as skydiving over Queenstown, New Zealand, while weaving in the details mentioned above. I will cover my travels across 17 countries spread out across six continents.

As of the time of this writing, I had visited 28 countries. This book is the culmination of five years of work and thousands of hours of research in terms of country-specific macroeconomic data, information about local laws and regulations, historical facts about specific countries, and recommendations for mostly adventure-related activities.

Do you want to read our more in-depth interview from earlier this year? Check out How To Make Travel a Lifelong Investment.

Book Title: The Wandering Investor

Author: Brendan Hughes

Date Book is Available: Presale begins later this summer, 2020

Brendan’s Email Address: Hughes2525@gmail.com

The views and opinions expressed in guest features on EdOdyssey’s blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of EdOdyssey. Any content provided by our bloggers or guest authors are of their opinion.