If people don't know that some place exists how can they ever dream of going there?
Spatial knowledge is very localized. Many people in “the West” know of Japan but few people have a solid concept of the differences between Malaysia and Indonesia or Thailand and Taiwan without having traveled there.
At the same time, there is a pattern where people know more about the places dear to them. People know Paris and Rome and maybe they’ve traveled there—but how much do they know about the towns near their own town?
From 2005-2012 I spent nearly six years in Spring City, Utah but I hadn’t been to Chester or Wales—despite those towns being less than 10 miles away. When I lived in La’ie, Hawaii, for two years I have only faint memories about Kaaawa another community passed by many times but never really thought about exploring or understanding the place. I had passed through those places, protected by 2 tons of metal and plastic but I couldn’t say that I knew the place or understood how it was different from my own town.
My goal for UNLI as a company is to help localized knowledge break free from the confines of local space. I want to increase the number of first time travelers to regions of the world far from their own—not far measured in physical kilometers but far in mental space.