Seems obvious to me but it needs to be said: perhaps you're not looking deep enough. Read the article again, the key message of "connecting with people and their cultures" is hard to miss.
Shallow self gratification of sun, surf, sex and art, these are not going to inspire you, challenge you, or help you grow.
But I feel like you already knew that, so why did you post this.
There are diminishing returns to everything, travel included. If you go deep enough, you’ll typically just uncover the mundane, everyday realities, that people are often not willing to share with a foreign, relatively wealthy tourist.
i started reading some of paul therouxs books and its given me a refreshed idea of what travel can be and how much some people are ok with opening up about. travel is so hard and expensive to do, were basically all beginners at it. even if you think your well traveled. visit 20 countries sounds like a lot and you start to feel like you know what your doing, but if you did 20 drawings your still clearly learning the basics.
Shallow self gratification of sun, surf, sex and art, these are not going to inspire you, challenge you, or help you grow.
But I feel like you already knew that, so why did you post this.