Today, 7 April, is World Health Day, which marks the anniversary of the founding of WHO in 1948; WHO has a "Health for all" commitment. I want to discuss travel and health today. On 13 July 2021, Club Tourism Inc. and Tohoku University jointly announced that they had confirmed the possibility of reducing the risk of dementia in travel under certain conditions. They published this study in the academic journal "Humanities and Social Sciences Communications" in March 2021 as "Curiosity-tourism interaction promotes subjective well-being among older adults in Japan." Curiosity is a personality that seeks information about a wide range of things. This research and analysis have confirmed that curiosity is the motivation for travel. The mechanism is that travel stimulates the brain and body. This stimulation satisfies curiosity and increases subjective well-being. Old research and analysis have proved that subjective well-being reduces the risk of dementia. So we can say that this research has newly confirmed the possibility of a dementia risk reduction effect from travel. The global population is aging, and the reason for the increase in the number of people with dementia is that the prevalence of dementia increases rapidly with aging. According to Alzheimer's Disease International's "World Alzheimer Report 2015," the number of people with dementia worldwide is expected to increase significantly from 46.78 million in 2015 to 102.15 million in 2040. In particular, the aging rate in High-Income Countries (HICs) is characterized by a significant increase in the rate of aging, putting them at risk of further increases in dementia. Suppose travel has the effect of preventing dementia, as mentioned above. In that case, the "Travel Divide,” like the digital divide, must be resolved immediately. The ability for seniors to travel easily could lead to a reduction in the social costs associated with dementia. We believe freeing seniors from the heavy suitcase and eliminating the travel information gap is the key to providing more seniors with the opportunity to ravel. I coined the “Travel Divide” term inspired by the digital divide. I define the "Travel Divide" as the elderly, disabled people, and families with children who give up traveling because of the burden of heavy luggage and travel information gaps. We aim to bridge the "Travel Divide" and "Travel for all." Create a society where everyone can travel freely. We hope that by using our services, seniors will experience an increase in their "subjective well-being" through travel.
