I wonder if the phenomena you describe is because we tend to notice our own first – I can imagine it could be a beneficial adaptation for a social species like ours. I’m researching for an upcoming post and hope to have more. Thanks for adding your thoughts.

Especially #1. I get tired of people I meet when I travel saying “Oh, you’re so rare for an American, you’re actually traveling!” So dumb because I also do meet Americans overseas all the time, I don’t get why this whole “Americans don’t travel” meme got started.

The point is, the average human being’s travel limits aren’t based on travel challenges, seeing cultures, etc. – it’s strongly correlated to distance.

Using your example, you can also fly from the Hyatt in Hamburg to the one in Madrid, and then Athens, use a credit card (or cash Euro) to pay for everything, and think they’re all similar places.

O.k., for example you state that Germans seem to travel as much as US Americans, no more no less, because the radius of most of their travel is the same as for an American, eg going from Tucson to New York. Yeah, great, you board a plane in Tuscon after you had your lunch at TGI Friday, where you ordered from a familiar English menu with familiar dishes and paid in your local US Dollars or with credit card, then you arrive in NY, where you could go straight to a similarly decorated TGI Friday with the same familiar menu, also accepting US Dollars. There’s no challenge whatsoever involved in this.
If you go the same distance in Europe, lets say from Hamburg in Germany to Albania, you have to cross 4 countries (if I counted correctly: Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia), all with different languages, local food and customs, most even with different currencies. Here you’re leaving your comfort zone clearly behind you!

And as for Australians: there’s so much desert that hardly any Australian would even consider to drive from Perth to Adelaide, not to mention Sydney or Brisbane. Many Germans explore the surrounding countries in their own vehicle, which is far more of a challenge than hopping on a plane from A to B.

Now if that’s not twisting statistics to match ones statement…
[ps: I’m German born & raised with Australian passport]

How would you suggest the statistics in those studies are being manipulated when compared to your anecdotal data?