Postcard from Andrea: Seoul

On a 12-hr layover, I took a DMZ tour from Seoul and found a powerful reminder of why travel and human connection matter more than ever.

This postcard comes to you from Incheon airport in Seoul, South Korea.  My fellow MSP travelers likely know it well, as it’s Delta’s gateway to Asia.  I’m writing in the midst of a 12 hour layover, which was spent not at the airport but on an airport-provided tour to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone), the border between North and South Korea.  While the easier course would have been to sip champagne in the lounge, travel at its best is about soaking in the experiences. And that felt like an especially important thing to do, as I wait to fly home to a government in shutdown.  With such critical work happening (or in this case, not) back in the States, focusing on travel can sometimes feel frivolous.  But spending time in the DMZ – where two enemies have been silently staring at each other since last century, and talking to my guides about its impacts on the local and world community – reminded me why travel, and the cultural and historical understanding it can provide, is perhaps more important than ever.  On the long bus ride back to the airport, I reflected on this. 

In times like these, it can feel trivial to think about travel. I would argue it’s never been more important.

Tourism fuels economies, including our own. It builds cultural understanding. And it reminds us that, despite distance and difference, we are connected.

This September, I logged nearly 30,000 miles flown across three continents. My final stop for the month was an extended layover in Seoul, South Korea. Pro tip for my Minneapolis Delta fliers who will undoubtedly find themselves here if heading to Asia: the airport offers free tours for those with long connections. Ask me about their “transit tours” if Incheon is in your future. Talk about understanding the value of tourism!

This is not my first extended layover here, nor my first airport tour, so I selected one focused on the DMZ, short for Demilitarized Zone. While even this critical international border has a touristy side—a Disney-style VR ride through the tunnels ending in a virtual glimpse of the famous crossing (don’t do it if you get motion sickness), the overwhelming message across my visit is one of hope: unification, and a deep desire to bring the Korean people together. Each New Year’s, a great bell is rung here, carrying forward the symbolic wish that the country might one day be reunited.

The DMZ itself is a place of striking contrasts. Because it has been untouched for decades, it shelters gardens with endangered species found nowhere else, yet it is also scattered with unexploded mines. The Freedom Bridge, once used by prisoners of war returning from the North, stands as a poignant reminder of the clear desire for reconnection. And nearby, the Odusan Unification Tower, built with a clear purpose in its name, is dedicated to the hope of bringing North and South together. From that tower, you look through binoculars at meager homes and farms in North Korea and speculate about what life is like.

My tour guides across these different countries have been anxious but genuinely curious to talk to me about what is going on in the United States. Without betraying their own politics, they are genuinely confused by what they are seeing and hearing. And I felt like I heard audible sounds of relief when I engaged with them in meaningful conversation – as if my willingness to be there and to learn from them and engage in the global community gave them hope about America more broadly.

This is why travel matters most in challenging times.

Tourism is not frivolous… it is connection. It’s not superfluous… its essential economic opportunity. Travel allows us to understand the world as it truly is, with all its tensions and aspirations, and to show the best of who we are in return.

#takethetrip

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